West Ham United dealt new £22m relegation blow as questions asked of staff: report

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 6: West Ham United manager Nuno Espírito Santo during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Nottingham Forest at London Stadium on January 6, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Rob Newell - CameraSport via Getty Images).

West Ham will be without a key €25 million (£21.8m) man ahead of their match against Bournemouth on Saturday.

The Hammers sit 18th and welcome the in-form Cherries to the London Stadium but hope to close the gap to Nottingham Forest above them.

West Ham have three wins from their last five Premier League matches, while Bournemouth are unbeaten in their last five and have rocketed to ninth.

West Ham are without three important players

Nuno Espirito Santo’s men are without Freddie Potts and Jean-Clair Todibo through suspension, meanwhile third-choice goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski remains sidelined with a back injury.

Crucially, they will also be without €25m January signing Pablo Felipe.

Pablo was one of four major signings for the Hammers in January (Image credit: Getty Images)

Many fans were critical of the large fee for a player from the Portuguese league, but the Brazilian had scored ten goals in 13 league games for Gil Vicente in the first half of the season.

He made his debut for West Ham in a devastating 2-1 home loss to Nottingham Forest, but started four games in a row after that, playing behind fellow new boy Taty Castellanos.

While yet to find the back of the net, the 22-year-old had worked his way into the team and looked set to supercharge the Hammers’ attack towards the back end of the season.

Instead, he will miss around six weeks with a calf strain, apparently exacerbating a pre-existing injury when they faced Burnley on 7 February, leaving questions to be asked of the club's medical staff. The injury rules him out of crucial Premier League fixtures and an FA Cup round of 16 tie against Brentford.

Nuno deployed Callum Wilson in that withdrawn role against Burnley, but opted to push Tomas Soucek higher instead against Manchester United in the next game.

There are plenty of attacking threats in the team, none more so than Jarrod Bowen (Image credit: Getty Images)

Soucek scored their only goal in that 1-1 draw, so perhaps Pablo’s spell on the sideline isn’t as disastrous as it may first appear for the relegation strugglers.

An extra time 1-0 win over Burton in the FA Cup at the weekend allowed Nuno to field out-of-favour players and youngsters such as Keiber Lamadrid and Ezra Mayers, so his starting lineup should be well rested for this weekend.

Every fixture is a vital one from here on out, and Pablo’s calf injury well may be looked back upon as a pivotal moment in the relegation battle.