Dimitri Van den Bergh will not play Players Championship 23 and 24 in Leicester. The Belgian has announced his withdrawal for medical reasons, without publicly detailing the exact nature of the problem. Even so, the news matters because it lands in a section of the calendar where every ProTour day can carry real weight, both for the overall ranking picture and for the security of the months ahead.
This cannot be read as a minor setback. Van den Bergh needed positive momentum, prize money and a little more continuity in his results. Instead, he is losing two immediate chances in Leicester at the exact moment when many players will be fighting for crucial margins before the rest of the summer.
Key facts around the withdrawal
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Player | Dimitri Van den Bergh |
| Tournaments missed | Players Championship 23 and 24 |
| Reason given | Medical reasons |
| Order of Merit position | 39th |
| Tour Card race position | 63rd |
| Expected return | Late July for Players Championship 25 and 26 |
A blow at the worst time in his season
In recent weeks, Van den Bergh had at least tried to restore some coherence to his season. After a difficult first half of the year, he had worked on his throw to recover a little more stability. There had been some signs of improvement, but not yet enough to turn into a proper restart. The problem is that this kind of rebuild needs rhythm, matches and the chance to string tournaments together. By missing Leicester, he loses exactly that ground.
The recent sequence has not helped. The World Cup did not bring the bounce Belgium wanted, and his returns on the ProTour ended early. In that context, a medical withdrawal does not just freeze two possible results. It also interrupts the little continuity he was trying to rebuild. This time, it breaks at the wrong moment.
Why the rankings matter so much now
The heaviest point, beyond the immediate concern around his health, is the pressure on the numbers. Van den Bergh is listed 39th in the PDC Order of Merit, a zone that remains manageable but far from comfortable if the weeks without earnings start to pile up. More worrying still, he is reported 63rd in the Tour Card race. At that point, the margin becomes very thin. In that kind of position, missing two Players Championship events is never neutral.
The reason is simple: while he stays on the sidelines, direct rivals can widen the gap or move past him. That is not a theoretical scenario. On the ProTour, a couple of well-timed runs are enough to move several places. When you are already close to the line, every forced absence counts almost twice: you earn nothing, and you let everyone else move.
The real issue now is the comeback
At this stage, the public message remains deliberately short. Everything is being managed behind the scenes, and Van den Bergh’s camp is targeting a return in late July for Players Championship 25 and 26. That is the right priority. Before any talk of draws or prize money, he first needs to come back in the right shape. But from a sporting perspective, the calendar will not give him much room. The longer the return takes, the more pressure builds around every next appearance.
The raw result tells one story, but the timing tells another: this medical withdrawal does not only take Van den Bergh out of Leicester, it also removes him from a phase where he badly needed to regain control of his season. For a player of his status, that is a signal worth following closely over the next few weeks.
