Nathan Aspinall has made an emotional plea to the Professional Darts Players Association (PDPA) to offer support to players who are struggling with their mental health.
Aspinall, 34, is currently ranked as the 15th best darts player on the planet according to the PDC World Rankings.
The Stockport-born star is currently competing at the World Darts Championship taking place at Alexandra Palace in London.
Aspinall won his first round match against Lourence Ilagan with a 3-1 win on Friday evening to book his place in the next stage of the competition.
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He will face Leonard Gates in the second round with his match scheduled to take place in either the afternoon or evening session on Monday, 22 December.
Aspinall's best performance at the World Championship has been reaching the semi-final stage in both 2019 and 2020.
This year's tournament has seen the biggest prize money increase in the competition's history, with the total fund rising to £5m and the eventual winner set to pocket a cool £1m.
Having reached the second round, should he exit the competition at this stage, then Aspinall would still pocket £25,000.
However, away from the action at the oche, Aspinall has made an emotional plea to the PDPA to look after professional darts players' mental health in an impassioned answer he gave when asked about what he has learned from his own experiences.
The Asp outlined the pressures that modern darts players are now under and that the sport is far from its humble roots of playing in a pub.
He believes that stemming from his own experiences, he can see some of his peers struggle under the pressure of darts and, though he did not name them, he hopes the PDPA reaches out to them to help them as he does not want to see players leave the sport because of mental health.
Aspinall said: "I don't think I'd let it do that again. I've been in that situation and it is brutal. It's tough. It's horrible.
"I think I've now trained my brain and I've done a lot of work with a lot of people, and the people that I work with won't let it get to that stage.
"There's a lot going on in darts at the moment and I see it before they [other players] see it because I've been through it.
"I feel sorry for them and the PDPA now need to step in and help these guys because there's a lot of guys suffering.
"There's never been more pressure on darts players - we're not darts players anymore, we are, and I hate saying it but so many people look up to us nowadays and there's so much pressure on us.
"It's gone from darts players in the pub drinking and making a few quid. We are elite sportsmen and there's so much pressure on people and that can affect you - it affected me.
"I see it first-hand so many times with so many people. Certainly there's two or three people I'm not going to name, but I just hope that the PDPA reach out to them and look after them because there's a lot of fantastic dart players in our sport.
"It'd be a shame to see so many of them go because of mental health."
Topics: Darts, World Darts Championship
John McDougall