Raymond van Barneveld was left hugely disappointed with himself after losing to Nick Kenny in his opening match on Saturday.
Reflecting on his defeat in an interview with AD, he said: “I am completely off the map. I am deeply ashamed of this performance.
“I’ve had [the flu] for three days but I didn’t want to mention it on television. Then people think: ‘He has that as an excuse again’.
“I took vitamins, cough medicine, lozenges. Every morning when I woke up, I had a throat like you hear it now. All the energy is out.
“You look forward to this all year, for days you deliberately don’t shake hands and do everything you can to not get sick and then you get sick.
“When your nose is stuffed up and you can barely breathe, you don’t have the strength to play your game.”