'Chizzy', who reached last year's semi-final, has been forced to pull out which means Luke Humphries has received a bye to the fourth round.

This follows the withdrawals of Michael van Gerwen and Vincent van der Voort.

Humphries is through to the last 16, where he will face Chris Dobey, who also reached the fourth round thanks to a bye.

As a result, there were only two matches in Wednesday's afternoon session. The seventh and 10th seeds were upset on the big stage. Jose De Sousa fell in a last-set decider to Alan Soutar, while Callan Rydz white-washed Nathan Aspinall.

Chizzy 'gutted and upset'

Chisnall broke his silence on Wednesday afternoon, taking to Twitter to express his frustration.

"As you will probably know by now I have had to withdraw from the World Darts Championships following a positive Covid test," he wrote.

"This is in line with PDC protocols. I am obviously gutted and upset, but am back at home isolating. Stay safe and take care."

Price 'wouldn't disagree' with postponement

The volume of positive tests has caused a major reaction, with top seed and reigning champion Gerwyn Price pondering the possibility of postponing the tournament.

"Tournament needs to be postponed" the Welshman wrote on Instagram.

'The Iceman', who could not compete in the 2021 Premier League after contracting Covid-19, continued: "Now this tournament is de valued (sic). I'd rather play the best to be the best, absolutely feel sick for these players having to pull out over Covid..."

He then elaborated: "I've been in their position so I feel for the players that have had to withdraw. There's a lot of hard work gone into getting events like the World Championships on so postponing probably isn't the best option, but an option I wouldn't disagree with. Time to keep myself safe and out of touch. Keep safe all."

The PDC has said there are currently no discussions planned to postpone the tournament, and reminded players not to interact with the crowd before or after matches.

Webster: We don't want to keep losing players

"We spoke last night - we were hoping that was it. Unfortunately, we lose Dave today," said Sky Sports pundit Mark Webster.

"First and foremost, I hope Dave gets better. It's just a shame for the event. We lost a semi-finalist from last year. Dave Chisnall would have been coming here thinking, 'this is my time'. Unfortunately, he's not going to get that chance.

"By default really, we've got an interesting tie with Chris Dobey and Luke Humphries. Not the way they wanted it.

"I hope this is the last one, because it doesn't help the event. It's not great for the crowd watching. We don't want to keep losing players. Hopefully, that is the last of it now. And hopefully, Dave gets better."

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