Mervyn King is hoping to battle through his injury problems at the 2012 Ladbrokes World Championship.
King looks to bounce back from injury problems
Mervyn King is hoping to battle through his injury problems at the 2012 Ladbrokes World Championship.
The 45-year-old's form dipped after the death of his father in September 2010 and he admits an on-going battle with tennis elbow has given him plenty of issues.
"My game over the last 12 months has been very up and down because I lost my father just over a year ago and that really hit me for six," he told
Sportinglife.com.
"I've had a lot of trouble with tennis elbow and I've had a lot of cortisone injections in my arms.
"My last 12 months has been quite dire by standards and it's seen me drop from four in the world to 12.
"I've had two injections. The second one was only about two weeks ago and I'm starting to get a little bit of tenderness but what can you do?
"This is what I do for a living so I've got to play and if it comes back I'll go to see a specialist and see where we go from there."
King, who beat Phil Taylor at last week's Players Championship, admits a lack of practise has caused his form to suffer but there will be no excuses at Alexandra Palace.
"I've suffered from a lack of practise in the last 12 months and that's why my game is not as consistent as it was.
"I'm not playing to the standard that I was but you can't blame things.
"It is the way it is and you have to adjust. I've adjusted to less practise and it's shown on my form throughout the last 12 months but I'm still in the top 16 after a really dire year.
"I'm just hanging in there."
Australian clash
'The King' takes on Geoff Kime in his first-round encounter on Monday night and admits he doesn't know too much about his Australian opponent.
"To be honest I don't really know about Jeff and that's no disrespect to him.
"He's an Australian and we don't really hear a lot about Australian dart players apart from the one or two that come over and play on our circuit.
"If he turns up and plays well he might win but if I turn up and play well I might win.
"I don't really know anything about his game, how he plays, whether he's slow or quick, what his averages are so it's an unknown quantity to me.
"We'll see what happens.
"I love the place, I love the stage and I love the tournament.
"If things start going right there then who knows."
