On the 18th of May 2026, Jelle Klaasen told MODUS he has medication that lets him throw darts close to the player he used to be. He said it was the last time he could use it. He said that without a treatment in the next few months, 2026 is probably his last year in the sport. And he named the player whose condition he compared his own to — a Dutch-American who has already been forced to throw left-handed because no cure exists.
The biggest career announcement Jelle Klaasen has ever made is sitting in front of a darts world that has not yet noticed. No Dutch outlet has covered it. The PDC has said nothing. No reaction from Van Gerwen, no comment from Van Barneveld.
Twenty years and four months ago, a 21-year-old nobody from North Brabant walked into Lakeside as a hundred-to-one outsider, with no BDO ranking to his name, and beat the four-time world champion seven sets to five. One in three people in the Netherlands watched it. It was the first Lakeside final ever played without a British player on stage. Jelle Klaasen became the youngest BDO World Champion in history.
He beat Phil Taylor at the 2016 PDC Worlds to reach a semi-final. He lost his Tour Card after fourteen consecutive years. He won it back. He lost it again. He won the Dutch Open, the Irish Open, and reached WDF world number one. He hit a nine-darter. He had cortisone injections, surgery, and years of throwing in tears. And now he is sitting in front of a camera saying his body has stopped listening.
His own words: “It doesn’t matter how many hours I practice. That is not going to change the problem with my arm.”
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