Darts star Luke Humphries has received an apology after he lashed out at the criticism he received for his play so far this year. The world number two was accused of 'giving in' to Luke Littler's dominance.

Humphries defended his record and his rivalry with Littler, after seeing a post on social media that read: "He is giving in to Luke Littler. He is not the second best player in the world right now."

Cool Hand Luke could not bite his tongue as he quoted the comment on X to launch a strong defence and attack the credibility of the person who made it.

"Whoever said this is absolutely clueless!!" his post read. "I'm sure it was someone with bags of experience and not just some random person who's never thrown a professional dart in their life..

"Disrespect to someone who absolutely dedicates his life to being the best version of himself and sportsman! Always someone that wants to dig the knife in when I've had a not even a bad last 6 months with 4 major finals."

Darts content creator Charlie Murphy owned up to the comments and responded to Humphries' message. He admitted he needed to be more careful with his comments so as not to see his thoughts misrepresented.

"It was me and whats been written I feel has been completely taken out of context or atleast what I was trying to say anyway. I think I need to learn to be a lot more careful with what / how I say things but that'll be a lesson learned.

"Spent a good bit of time with Luke and no disrespect in any form was meant, I was asked to do these round ups with little to no experience or training / control over the editing, anyway apologies from me."

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Humphries has previously admitted his concerns that his rivalry with Littler is losing its edge due to the number of times they have played each other. The pair have met in seven major finals, with the Nuke claiming four wins and his rival three.

"I think it has been watered down a little bit," Humphries said. "I think we have played each other 27 times in two years, which is a lot. It is a lot.

"Most of the time it is due to the fact that we have been meeting in the later rounds because we are the best players. The Premier League dilutes it a little bit more. When we play in the Premier League, people don't really care as much."