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Luke Littler was barred from competing at this afternoon's penultimate Players Championship event of 2025 after getting stuck in traffic and missing the deadline.

Littler, 18, who clinched his first Players Championship title of the season in PC32 earlier this month, was due to play in PC33 at the Robin Park Tennis Centre in Wigan on Wednesday.

However, the teenage sensation revealed on Instagram at 11:06am that he was no longer going to compete. He said: "Back to bed it is, wonder who they are gonna call up," alongside a laughing face emoji.

It meant that Littler missed the strict 11am deadline for signing-on registration for the event and therefore had to forfeit his place in the line-up.

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He is one of 12 players who have dropped out for PC33 and Thursday's PC34, with Josh Rock, Gary Anderson, Gian van Veen, Jonny Clayton and James Wade among those not participating.

Later on Wednesday, Littler posted an update on Instagram. At 1:45pm, 'The Nuke' disclosed that he had instead gone to eat some Chinese food at a restaurant.

While not playing in PC33 is going to be a frustration to Littler - especially as he appeared to be close or even at the venue - he will still be at the £600,000 Players Championship finals in Minehead next month.

There was a concern that Littler might not even qualify for finals weekend after dropping outside the top 64 going into the most recent set of Players Championship events.

But Littler produced a mesmerising day of darts in the last tournament, as he beat Dylan Slevin, Jeffrey de Graaf, Adam Lipscombe, Adam Hunt, Rhys Griffin, Stephen Bunting and then Dennie Olde Kalter in the final to claim a much-needed win at PC32.

In the process, Littler banked £15,000 and guaranteed his place in the Players Championship finals. But after beating Olde Kalter in the final, he hit out at critics on social media who doubted he would make the top 64 and stand a chance to win the £120,000 top prize starting on Friday, November 21.

"I am on social media. Lots of people were saying that I wasn't going to make it," he said. "There you go, I've won today."

Littler's win at PC32 came three days after he was crowned the World Grand Prix champion for the first time. He thumped rival and world No.1 Luke Humphries 6-1 to win the trophy at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester.

More recently, Littler went to Dortmund looking to win the European Championship on the weekend, but he fell at the second hurdle, losing out to Wade 10-7 on Saturday.

Van Veen, 23, ended up coming out on top to win a maiden Premier PDC title, edging Humphries in a 11-10 thriller.