Every player that’s lost their PDC Tour card after World Darts Championship including two-time world champion

AMID the excitement of the Premier League Darts line-up being unveiled, spare a thought for players at the other end of the PDC Tour.

New world champion Luke Littler leads the eight-star Prem selection - while in contrast 31 players have LOST their Tour card.

The big drop from the sport's top 64 means going back to school for many.

This month's Q-School, to be precise - a second-tier tournament involving a mix of up-and-comers and coming-downers.

Suffering the Tour chop might be most cruel for those players who in just the last few weeks were competing in the World Championship.

But the biggest name exiting the elite is no surprise.

That's two-time ex-world champ Adrian Lewis, who has pretty much stopped playing since April 2023 and didn't feature at the Ally Pally this time around.

Lewis, 39, has spent time out to help care for his ill wife Sarah, but has also suggested he hopes to return to top-level darts at some stage.

In fact, this year he'll contest the MODUS Super Series, a leading event for non-PDC players.

In all, 31 stars from the 2024 Tour have not made it this year.

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That includes Double Dutch woe - as Vincent van der Voort and Jeffrey de Zwaan miss out.

Aussie ace "The Wizard" Simon Whitlock has wandered off, the 55-year-old with the distinctive long beard having most famously reached the 2010 World Championship final.

Mervyn King, 58, a former World No 4 and on the Tour since 2007, has also been unseated.

Meanwhile, as many players dream of returning to the cream, they can cast an envious eye to the gr-eight group at the top end of the sport.

Alongside Littler in the 17-week Premier League will be 2024 world champ Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen, Rob Cross, Stephen Bunting, Gerwyn Price, Chris Dobey and Nathan Aspinall.