Michael Smith has revealed that he is now working with physio staff from Manchester City to help recover from recent injuries.
Michael Smith Begins Recovery From Injury With Manchester City
Bullyboy has been struggling with injuries in recent times and his performances on the oche have dropped – which lead to his exclusion from the Premier League.
Losing in the first round to Kevin Doets at the 2025 PDC World Championships was a low point in Smith’s career and began a run of defeats.
In a post to social media, Smith confirmed that he has been struggling with an abundance of injuries, which included issues like arthritis.
The 2023 World Champion is not getting any luck with injuries, as he revealed a fresh issue that was caused from his son’s scooter.
Smith said: “I did that on Christmas Day – I bought the kids two scooters, I thought I’d race one of them, I went over what I thought was a puddle but it was actually a pothole.
“I’ve hit that at 22mph, straight over the handlebars and hit my shoulder into the floor. I couldn’t pick my arm up for seven weeks. I also had a big cut. Even now I’ve still got a bit of bone sticking out in my shoulder.”
Bullyboy will be competing at the 2025 UK Open in Minehead on the opening two days of March, where he will be looking to end his run of defeats.
The World No.19 has suffered losses to Danny Noppert, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Kim Huybrechts, Stephen Burton and Andy Boulton since his defeat at the World Championships.
To battle this, Smith has revealed a new approach to injury recovery and revealed he has now began work with Manchester City physio, Ben Thompson.
Smith said: “I’ve got Man City physio Ben Thompson working with me. My wife Dagmara met Ben at the Manchester Premier League meeting a while back. It’s mad that he’ll come to work on me after doing Erling Haaland or Phil Foden’s legs and then be working on my back and shoulders.
“Ben says AC joint injuries are more common in rugby, and I’ve got a bit of bone that sticks out now, but I’m told that will never go away.”
His recovery will be far from easy, as the former PDC Premier League star confirmed that he has also had injections of cortisone to help ease the pain.
He said: “I’ve had cortisone injections in my wrist three weeks ago and my throwing hand is fine at the minute. It was a bit sore on the joint. First of all I threw a dart and it completely missed the board at home and hit the mural which I’ve just painted in my games room, so that was fun
“But for the last week and a half I’ve been able to practise for four hours a day, which I’ve not been able to do for the last 12 weeks. I’ve had the arthritis for years. The worst thing about going to Minehead is because it’s so cold there and the cold gets to my wrist.”
