'I’m putting on the England jersey, whether I’m dying or not': Luke Humphries never had doubts on Luke Littler playing World Cup of Darts

In June, the English team will be represented at the World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt by an absolute dream combination: Luke Humphries and world champion Luke Littler. Humphries, the current world number one, returns as defending champion after winning the trophy with Michael Smith last year.

Although there was some doubt about Littler's participation - particularly after a difficult performance in front of a German audience at the German Darts Grand Prix in Munich - 'Luke the Nuke' made it clear last week that he will simply be in attendance in Frankfurt. And according to Humphries, that was never really in doubt.

"No, I wasn’t worried - and look at the team-mates I can fall back on! I’ve got an array of partners that I can get if needed. I saw Luke’s (social media) post and I knew straight away that he didn’t mean what he said. He probably forgot about the World Cup being in Germany. When I asked him about it he said, ‘No, I'm definitely playing," said Humphries as per Mirror.

"No-one’s going to turn down playing for England. You can never turn down playing for your country. I would never turn it down in a million years, no matter how tired I was, how ill I was. I’m putting on the England jersey, whether I’m dying or not. I think Luke’s the same.”

The brand new world champion Littler learned to deal with enormous pressure at a young age. Still, Humphries knows better than anyone that playing for your country brings a different kind of stress. "I feel like we have to take away that pressure and just go out and enjoy it. Luke’s obviously experienced a lot of pressure in his career already, but there is a lot more pressure when you’re playing for your country," he explained.

Still, Humphries is confident his young teammate can handle it. "Luke’s got good doubles experience from when he used to play in tournaments before he joined the PDC."

“I was pretty new to the format when I played with Michael last year, but it didn’t affect me. We’re going to form a great team and if we gel, and play our best, it’s going to take a tough performance to beat us.”

In 2024, the English duo of Humphries and Smith won the title at the Nations Tournament by dealing with Austrians Mensur Suljovic and Rowby-John Rodriguez (10-6) in the final. It was the fifth World Cup title for England, but only the first since 2016.