Ryan Searle: 'Heavy Metal' opens up on rare eye condition ahead of World Darts Championship semi-final against Luke Littler
Ryan Searle says there is currently "no cure" for his rare eye condition, Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy; watch the semi-finals at the World Darts Championship from 7.30pm on Friday where Searle will face Luke Littler, live on Sky Sports Darts and Main Event
Friday 2 January 2026 10:32, UK
Ryan Searle has opened up on his rare eye conditions as he looks to shock Luke Littler in the semi-finals of the World Darts Championship.
Searle is making his first last four appearance at Alexandra Palace after an impressive run to this point which has seen him drop just two sets - the least of any player in the tournament.
The 38-year-old's previous best record was the fourth round and he had generally not shown his best form on the televised stage during his career since joining the PDC in 2017.
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Searle has been playing with a rare eye condition Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy (ADOA) which sometimes stops him from seeing where his darts land, but it has not stopped him from becoming one of the current top players in the world.
"It was only in the last 18 months that I realised what the diagnosis was for my vision. It's been bad for as long as I can remember," said Searle.
"But to have a diagnosis for it is really good and it puts you in that place where you know what's wrong with your vision. There's no cure for what I've got so I'm stuck with it. I wear contact lenses now to try and take a bit of the blurriness away from my vision.
"But sometimes on stage I'm asking the caller what I've scored and sometimes I don't and it puts me in a bit of a difficult position!
"If I can inspire people that maybe can't see as well as others to pick up the game and give it a go, then it means a lot to me."
Searle has been a PDC member for a decade and was won seven Players Championship events during that time, although faces the biggest match of his career to-date against Littler.
He won a Players Championship event in each of the past six seasons, including two during his 2025 campaign, but is through to just the second semi-final in a TV major of his career.
The English player lost a final-leg decider to Peter Wright in the 2021 Players Championship Finals but had never gone beyond the fourth round in his seven previous appearances at the World Darts Championship.
Searle, who is nicknamed 'Heavy Metal', has raised €15,000 for the Cure ADOA Foundation and is looking to raise more.
He revealed his daughter is registered as "visually impaired" and will be unlikely to drive when she's older.
"It can get worse out of nowhere. I'm on the legal limit now to be able to drive so I wear glasses or contacts to be able to drive," he added.
"If my vision was to get any worse, which it could at any point, then I'd have to find a driver somewhere."
What does semi-final run mean for Searle?
Searle is closing on a career-high world ranking after his run to the semi-finals, and is just one win away from automatically qualifying for the Premier League for the first time.
He is provisionally set to climb to world No 8 after making the last four, while reaching the final would move him into the top four and guarantee an automatic qualification spot.
Even if he doesn't move into the top four, could his performance at the Alexandra Palace over the past few weeks earn him a Premier League debut.
"I've kind of said privately that the Premier League is something that I would like to do once just to say that I've done it," said Searle.
"Whether this is the year... if you look at Chris Dobey last year, he kind of had a similar path to me where previous majors he didn't do a huge amount and then got to the Worlds and made the semi-finals and they put him in. I'm not sure whether my face fits for that but we'll see what happens!"
Searle: I'm not expected to beat Littler
Searle has faced Luke Littler on five previous occasions in PDC-ranked events and lost all five, most recently in a last-16 exit at the Flanders Darts Open in August.
Littler went on to win that event and also lifted the trophy after their first meeting in February 2024, where he edged out Searle in a last-leg decider to win the Players Championship 1 Final.
'The Nuke' won the Belgian Darts Open and World Matchplay titles this year after seeing off Searle earlier in the tournament, with their other meeting seeing Littler win at the 2024 German Darts Championship before losing to Peter Wright in the final.
Searle said: "I've got two really tough games left and potentially the toughest game of them all against Luke Littler.
"I want to try and lift the pressure off me a little bit just because of the position I'm in. I'm probably not expected to win my next game."
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