Luke Littler thanks parents for getting his eyesight ‘sorted’ in childhood

Luke Littler has revealed his life could have taken a different path had he not had corrective eye surgery when he was a child.

Littler was sent in to Warrington hospital as a youngster to repair strabismus, a condition commonly known as cross eye, where the eyes do not align.

It was an operation his parents wanted and it has paid dividends as the teenager now has treble-20 vision and is the best darts player in the world.

Asked if things could have been different, he said: “Well, who knows? It’s one of those things, obviously, it had to be sorted. My mum and dad wanted that sorted.

“But obviously, when I was younger, I didn’t really care. But now you look at it, it was a good thing to get done at the time, but I don’t have memories of it now. But obviously it had to be done. And it got done.

“I think that’s the last time I was in there. So, like when I was four or five, got it sorted.

“Obviously, eyesight is really important. I don’t have many memories of that happening. There are pictures that my family put on. I was very tired at the time, obviously resting. But yeah, now we’re all good.”

Littler resumes his tilt at retaining the historic World Championship title he won in January when the tournament resumes at Alexandra Palace on Saturday.

With England dead and buried in the Ashes and Premier League football scattered over the holidays, Littler says the Ally Pally bonanza remains the number one sporting event of Christmas.

“I mean, just tune in,” he said. “Obviously, the sport has taken off, leaps and bounds. And obviously, Christmas is darts.

“There’s football going on as well. But all I see is that Christmas is for darts. And yeah, if anyone’s not watching it at the minute, then you should turn it on after Christmas.”