Premier League Darts star comes clean on serious injury he had been keeping quiet

has revealed that he suffered a dislocated shoulder at the Players Championship last week. 'The Asp' still somehow played through the pain and reached the final of the event, where he lost to Damon Heta, and then beat to put two points on the board only three days later.

Aspinall has enjoyed a strong run of form since the start of the month. Finals in the Players Championship and the European Tour came either side of a nightly Premier League win in Manchester, which will have been extra special for the Stockport-born thrower.

Before the Premier League action began in Liverpool on Thursday, Aspinall admitted he has been playing through a shoulder issue. : "I did it last week on the Pro Tour. I did not know what I had done until I got back home but I had a minor dislocation on my shoulder. I don't know how I managed to play so well last week! It is still a little sore but it feels good now."

The injury turned out to be a lot more serious than the 33-year-old expected. Last week he still thought it was only a minor tweak, saying: "It's still pretty bad. I pulled it a bit and made the decision to pull out of the ProTour on Tuesday."

Aspinall and his injured shoulder lost in the quarter-finals against Luke Humphries in Liverpool, but he has battled adversity before, and he is no stranger to getting through tough times.

The world No. 8 is one of the unlucky players to suffer with dartitis - a mental condition which affects the thrower's ability to release the dart at the right time.

After his triumph in Manchester, : "It affects me, but I'm winning and I'm winning tournaments and it's one of them, either quit and give up and go home or you own it and you make it part of the game and that's what I've decided to do.

"I've been through an absolutely horrendous two years. I'm a fighter, I'm a warrior. People call me a Jack Russell and I think that's why I'm here. I don't know when I'm beaten."

Aspinall went into Night 12 of the Premier League occupying the fourth and final play-off spot. He narrowly missed out on last year's play-offs, having finished four points behind Michael Smith in fifth.