Michael van Gerwen has reignited his long-running feud with Peter Wright by suggesting the Scotsman should retire after crashing out of the PDC World Darts Championship on Tuesday.
Wright, the 2020 and 2022 world champion, was thrashed 3-0 by 33-year-old qualifier Arno Merk in the second round.
On Tuesday, he turned in his worst-ever performance at Alexandra Palace, averaging just 79.20, hitting only two 180s and managing a 13.33 per cent success rate on the doubles.
Since losing his opening match at the World Championship at the end of 2023, 'Snakebite' has endured a largely downward spiral, tumbling down the rankings and almost certainly set to drop outside the top 32 following this year’s tournament.
Three-time world champion Van Gerwen, who progressed to the third round after defeating William O’Connor, showed little sympathy for his old rival’s struggles.
When asked whether he was surprised by Wright’s display, the 36-year-old Dutchman laughed and said: 'You want me to answer this? I can answer this really easily.'
He then added: 'I'm not really surprised by his performance because he's been playing c*** lately. I think it's time for him to retire anyway.'
Van Gerwen and Wright have faced each other in two World Championship finals - the 2014 showdown won by the Dutchman and the 2020 final in which Wright gained revenge to claim his maiden world title.
The pair had been on course for a tantalising post-Christmas third-round clash this year, but Wright’s early defeat means Van Gerwen will now face Merk instead.
Van Gerwen's remarks come just a week after Wright, 55, suggested Van Gerwen’s eyesight may be deteriorating.
Following his first-round win over Noan-Lynn van Leuven, Wright said: 'I think their (younger players') eyesight is better than ours. I think that's about it.
'Obviously Gary (Anderson) is on the glasses or contacts. I don't know if Michael is wearing contacts at the moment, but I think MVG's vision is probably going - but he won't admit it at the moment.'
When informed of those comments, Van Gerwen responded: 'There's nothing wrong with my eyes. Don't worry. I keep getting compliments.'
Two-time world champion Gary Anderson has urged patience with his compatriot, insisting Wright should be given 'a bit of time'.
'We can't play well all the time,' Anderson said. 'People think we're robots and you've just got to play well all the time or a bad couple of games it's "he's finished, he's retiring".
'Just give folk a break, you know. We can't keep doing that day in and day out. We've seen Michael van Gerwen do that for probably the last decade. He has a blip and it's "that's it, he's finished".'
Meanwhile, former World Championship semi-finalist Wayne Mardle believes Wright should avoid making any rash decisions about his future.
'It was an awful watch - watching a champion, a legend of our sport, someone who has helped the sport grow, I didn't enjoy it one bit,' Mardle told Sky Sports.
'I don't know what questions Peter will ask himself - whether it's like "it's fine, I will carry on. I love the game". And I hope that happens. He's always said "I don't want to retire, I love it" so I don't want him to have a knee-jerk reaction because it's happened at the World Championship.
'If you play like that elsewhere, it's OK. You don't really think about it but when you do it at the World Championship, and I know this because I've done it, you end up questioning whether you are good enough to compete ever again.
'And it's about competing, about winning. He's a winner. I hope he's OK because you will think about that. That sleepless night stuff, I hope he doesn't make one of these knee-jerk reactions like we have seen from other players.
'He's been a classy ambassador for darts - brings that fun but also brings that amazing ability and a touch of class.'
