Luke Littler blamed an absence of sleep for his shock European Tour exit on Friday night.
The Nuke was facing Wessel Nijman within the opening round of the Baltic Sea Darts Open.
Despite being a transparent favourite to progress, the 17-year-old sensation fell to a 6-3 defeat to see his campaign come to a surprisingly premature end.
Competing in Kiel, Germany, Littler had lower than 24 hours between the competition and his previous outing within the Premier League on Thursday night.
Despite being booed, Littler reached the semi-finals in Leeds on the First Direct Arena where he was beaten by Michael van Gerwen on an evening that belonged to hometown boy, Luke Humphries.
But as a substitute of bouncing back from the frustration, the teenager looked removed from his best.
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Littler had taken to Instagram early on Friday morning, showing him starting his journey to Germany at 4.20am, captioning his picture: “The fun of the Euro tour”.
Following his defeat to Dutch star Nijman, Littler made his feelings very clear in a second Instagram story.
He wrote: “Cannot expect to play my best darts on 4 hours’ sleep.
“Premier League < Euro Tour is grueling.
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“Well played Wessel, see you all Thursday,” with a saluting emoji.
As alluded to, Littler will next be in motion for Night 16 of the Premier League in Sheffield – the penultimate week of the championship.
Sitting top of the table, Littler has already qualified for the Premier League Playoffs on the O2 Arena on Thursday, May 23.
