Justin Pipe will miss the Ladbrokes UK Open this weekend due to a positive Covid-19 result.

On arrival at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes on Thursday, all players and event staff were subjected to Covid-19 monitoring, with one positive result.

Pipe, the world number 47, was supposed to play Luke Humphries in the third round of the tournament on Friday afternoon, but he’ll have to self-isolate due to government regulations.

Humphries will get a bye into the fourth round as a result of this.

Due to the withdrawal of Cristo Reyes and Florian Hempel from the original field of qualifiers due to family reasons, their scheduled opponents – Ryan Joyce in round three and Jitse van der Wal in round one, respectively – will earn a bye.

Wesley Harms, Robert Marijanovic, Daniel Larsson, Michael Unterbuchner, Darren Penhall, and Boris Kcrmar all pulled out of the tournament before the draw.

The £450,000 tournament in Milton Keynes will now feature a field of 151 players from March 5-7.

On Friday, the frantic First, Second, and Third Rounds will be completed on the Main Stage and Outer Boards, with all action taking place in one room, much like it did in the tournament’s previous home in Bolton.

It all kicks off at 12 p.m. on ITV4 with five hours of darting action before a short break.

The fourth round, which takes place on Friday night, will see the likes of Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, Peter Wright, and Gary Anderson launch their campaigns.

This comes after an open draw at the end of the afternoon session, during which any player can draw any other player.

You can follow the 2021 PDC UK Open across all Online Darts platforms across the whole weekend. From our live stream on Youtube, or our Live Blog on Onlinedarts.com

https://twitter.com/lukeh180/status/1367600987846946825