Nathan Aspinall taken to hospital hours before Bahrain Masters darts match

Nathan Aspinall was taken to hospital hours before his opening match in the Bahrain Masters.

Some of the biggest names in the sport of darts are in Bahrain for this year's Masters, including world champion Luke Littler, Stephen Bunting and Luke Humphries.

Not to mention Aspinall, who beat Xiao Chen Zong 6-2 to set up a blockbuster clash against world No.1 Humphries.

But Aspinall's preparation for his opening match weren't ideal as he had to go to hospital just before stepping onto the oche.

He suffered from severe swelling and pain in his elbow after being bit by an insect.

The 33-year-old was treated in hospital before beating his Chinese opponent.

"I got bit, so I was in hospital until the early hours. I woke up and it was like a balloon. I'm like: Oh my god, not my injury again. But I saw a doctor and he advised me to go to hospital," he revealed.

"I went to hospital and, at four o'clock [on Thursday], I didn't know if I would be playing it was that bad.

"But the tablets that I've been on and icing it and stuff like that, it's kind of died down.

"It's still really sore, but we'll get through this weekend and, hopefully, it is just a five-day thing. It was a long night."

Nathan Aspinall was taken to hospital before his opening match of the Bahrain Masters. Image: Getty

Aspinall was pleased with his performance and believes his mentality is going from strength-to-strength as he looked forward to his match against Humphries.

"My finishing has been brilliant for the last couple of months. My scoring let me down," he added.

"There's still another 10 or 15 per cent on my scoring that needs to come into play, especially against Luke.

"But I'm happy, I'm getting stronger, week on week, mentally stronger."

'The Asp' wasn't the only big winner in day one of the competition as the likes of Littler, Gerwyn Price and Chris Dobey also secured victories.

But Rob Cross fell at the first hurdle, losing to Paolo Nebrida, who became only the second player from the Asian Tour to beat a PDC player on the World Series.