Nathan Aspinall taken to hospital hours before Bahrain Masters match after elbow swelled up ‘like a balloon’

NATHAN ASPINALL had to go to hospital hours before his opening match in the Bahrain Masters.

The Asp beat Xiao Chen Zong 6-2 to set up a meeting with world number one Luke Humphries.

But he almost missed out on the clash after suffering severe swelling and pain in his elbow.

Aspinall is suspected to have suffered an insect bite, so he went to hospital for treatment.

He said: "I got bit, so I was in hospital until the early hours. I woke up and it was like a balloon. I'm like: Oh my god, not my injury again. But I saw a doctor and he advised me to go to hospital.

"I went to hospital and, at four o'clock [on Thursday], I didn't know if I would be playing it was that bad.

"But the tablets that I've been on and icing it and stuff like that, it's kind of died down.

"It's still really sore, but we'll get through this weekend and, hopefully, it is just a five-day thing. It was a long night."

Aspinall was pleased with his performance in the freezing conditions and revealed he was freezing in the warm-up.

He added: "My finishing has been brilliant for the last couple of months. My scoring let me down.

"There's still another 10 or 15 per cent on my scoring that needs to come into play, especially against Luke.

"But I'm happy, I'm getting stronger, week on week, mentally stronger."