James Maddison attends the World Darts Championship as he enjoys his break after the World Cup

  /  autty

Leicester and England star James Madison was at Ally Pally to enjoy the World Darts Championships on Friday night.

The 26-year-old is looking to be back in action for the Foxes on Boxing Day, after not playing a minute over the World Cup due to an injury he suffered in his last Premier League game.

Three days before they play Newcastle, Maddison was in the stands enjoying the darts, and he refused to down a pint after chants by fans.

Maddison in an interview with Sky Sports said: 'I think it's known that I'm a big fan of the darts.

'We have a good darts school at Leicester. Lot of the lads play, even the staff play.

'We take the board to away games and we stick it up the night before when we're having down time and the standard is decent.'

When asked if he was top of the leaderboard, he said: 'I don't want to come across big-headed but I am.

'Luke Thomas who is with me today would say different but the standard is quite good to be fair.'

When asked if he gets 180's, he replied: 'Yeah, I've had a few 180's. Gone past the stage where I count how many I've got. But it's good fun we love the darts.'

Maddison has regularly spoken about his love for darts and even did a dart throwing celebration when he scored in a 4-0 victory over Wolves back in October.

Maddison has been a standout star for Leicester again this season, registering seven goals and four assists which led to him being called up for the England squad.

Despite travelling to Qatar, he hasn't played since the Foxes' 2-0 victory over West Ham before the World Cup break.

His manager Brendan Rodgers said about Maddison's chances of playing on Monday: 'We're going to give it every chance to see where he’s at. He’s had some ongoing issues with his knee. We’ll assess that.'

In the evening session at the oche, former champion Rob Cross is through to the third round of the PDC World Championship after seeing off debutant Scott Williams at Alexandra Palace.

A fine contest that went to a last-leg decider in each set saw Cross prevail 3-1 with an average of 99 and having recorded seven 180s.

The 32-year-old Englishman, winner of the competition five years ago and a runner-up at last month's Players Championship Finals, said in quotes on pdc.tv: 'This place will always be special to me. This is the holy grail.

'I think I dealt with the big moments a little bit more, but I probably put that down to experience. I feel good. I feel like I'm getting better and I'm enjoying it again.'

Cross will play Mervyn King in round three.

Friday's action also included Wales' Jonny Clayton advancing with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Dutchman Danny van Trijp.

Clayton will next face Brendan Dolan, who defeated Jimmy Hendriks 3-1.

Van Trijp's compatriot Danny Noppert was a 3-1 victor over David Cameron, and there were also 3-1 wins for Joe Cullen against Ricky Evans and Ross Smith against Darius Labanauskas.

Chris Dobey won 3-0 against Martijn Kleermaker to set up a clash with two-time champion Gary Anderson, and Martin Schindler will face last year's runner-up Michael Smith after beating Martin Lukeman 3-1.

Related: Leicester City Olympiakos Piraeus James Maddison
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