FOR SNAKEBITE

gallstones drama behind him. He said: “Although I went out in the second round last year, I didn’t do a lot wrong. You lose, you get over it.

“I have to admit the illness did affect my form and being admitted to hospital two weeks before the World Championship was a masterpiece of bad timing.”

Wright is in no hurry to revisit the searing agony of gallstones. He said: “If it woke me up in the night I would be walking around like a zombie at 3am.

“I probably did well to keep going as long as I did because I was exhausted. It’s not easy to play your best when you are knackered before the first dart.”

A winner’s cheque for £500,000 on New Year’s Day would be the perfect way for Wright to move on.