The entries have been confirmed for Players Championship 5-6, set to take place on February 24-25 at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester. Both tournaments will feature a 128-player field competing for a £15,000 top prize. Play will commence each day at 13:00 GMT.
Jonny Clayton, who currently tops the Premier League, is among the Premier League stars entered, alongside Josh Rock, Gerwyn Price and Michael van Gerwen. Wessel Nijman currently tops the Players Championship Order of Merit after the first few tournaments. However, Nathan Aspinall, Stephen Bunting, Luke Humphries, Luke Littler, Alexander Merkx and Gian van Veen are absent from this ProTour double header. This means Luke Littler has still not played at all on the ProTour this year.
Littler had previously said he would likely play most of the ProTours in Wigan due to its proximity to his house, but he has not done so yet. He is, however, due to play this weekend in Krakow, so he will be involved in some ranking action outside the Premier League. Most of the other absentees, such as Bunting, Humphries and Van Veen, play in the Premier League, which is cited as a likely reason for their decision not to enter. Michael van Gerwen, despite being entered, is noted as a potential doubt after being sick and missing both the Premier League in Glasgow and the Polish Darts Open.
As a result of the absences, Joe Hunt, Martijn Dragt, Jack Tweddell, Steve Lennon, Tommy Morris and Tommy Lishman have been added to the line-up from the Challenge Tour. The full entry lists for both Players Championship 5 and Players Championship 6 are identical and include: Gary Anderson, Keane Barry, Owen Bates, Stefan Bellmont, Filip Bereza, Sebastian Bialecki, Tom Bissell, Andy Boulton, Bradley Brooks, Stephen Burton, Dave Chisnall, Jonny Clayton, Gabriel Clemens, Cam Crabtree, Rob Cross, Joe Cullen, Niall Culleton, Maximilian Czerwinski, Mike De Decker, Jeffrey de Graaf, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Cor Dekker, Chris Dobey, Kevin Doets, Brendan Dolan, Martijn Dragt, Tavis Dudeney, Ritchie Edhouse, Matthias Ehlers, Ricky Evans, Adam Gawlas, Andrew Gilding, Kai Gotthardt, Beau Greaves, Rhys Griffin, Dominik Gruellich, Daryl Gurney, Stefaan Henderyck, Damon Heta, Yorick Hofkens, Justin Hood, Max Hopp, Joe Hunt, James Hurrell, Kim Huybrechts, Ryan Joyce, Tytus Kanik, Nick Kenny, Mervyn King, Christian Kist, Marvin Kraft, Maik Kuivenhoven, Darius Labanauskas, Chris Landman, Sietse Lap, Adam Leek, Steve Lennon, Adam Lipscombe, Tommy Lishman, Pero Ljubic, Jim Long, Thomas Lovely, Oskar Lukasiak, Martin Lukeman, Charlie Manby, Mickey Mansell, Shane McGuirk, Ryan Meikle, Cameron Menzies, Arno Merk, Tommy Morris, Wessel Nijman, Danny Noppert, William O'Connor, Dennie Olde Kalter, Rob Owen, Adam Paxton, Ricardo Pietreczko, Darryl Pilgrim, Wesley Plaisier, Benjamin Pratnemer, Gerwyn Price, Samuel Price, Krzysztof Ratajski, Madars Razma, Cristo Reyes, Greg Ritchie, Josh Rock, Rusty-Jake Rodriguez, Stephen Rosney, Pascal Rupprecht, Callan Rydz, Martin Schindler, Connor Scutt, Ryan Searle, Karel Sedlacek, David Sharp, Michael Smith, Ross Smith, Carl Sneyd, Alan Soutar, Jeffrey Sparidaans, Niko Springer, Mensur Suljovic, Tom Sykes, Tyler Thorpe, Viktor Tingstrom, Thibault Tricole, Jack Tweddell, Raymond van Barneveld, Dimitri Van den Bergh, Jurjen van der Velde, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Michael van Gerwen, Jimmy van Schie, Marvin van Velzen, Mario Vandenbogaerde, Richard Veenstra, James Wade, Adam Warner, Jermaine Wattimena, Leon Weber, Lukas Wenig, Ian White, Scott Williams, Luke Woodhouse, Peter Wright and Niels Zonneveld.
