West Ham United begin their Championship campaign on Sunday against Burnley at Turf Moor, with Nuno Espirito Santo's side missing two players through injury and one new signing unavailable.
Injuries and unavailability
Tomas Soucek is not involved after suffering a serious ankle injury during the Czech Republic's final World Cup group match against Mexico at the end of June. Venezuelan winger Keiber Lamadrid is also out after sustaining a knee injury during a friendly against FC Magdeburg two weeks ago.
“Both of them are out for this game,” Nuno said of Soucek and Lamadrid during his pre-match press conference on Friday. “We hope to have both of them back as soon as possible. Both of them are improving, and we’ll continue to assess them day by day. As a squad, we are preparing. We still have one session to go, and we are dealing with a couple of other issues, so after that we will decide the team.”
New signing Arne Engels, who joined from Celtic in a £25million deal on Saturday, is ineligible to make his debut. The club have also sold well this window, bringing in over £150m for Crysencio Summerville, Mateus Fernandes and Freddie Potts, but have struggled to find replacements.
Starting lineup and debutants
Manor Solomon, recently arrived from Tottenham, comes straight in for a debut, the only change from the 3-1 Carabao Cup victory over Portsmouth. Captain Jarrod Bowen, who turned down interest from Premier League clubs to stay, starts after scoring in that win.
El Hadji Malick Diouf, subject to interest from Brentford earlier in the window, is on the bench, as is James Ward-Prowse, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Burnley. Edson Alvarez is not in the squad.
West Ham XI: Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Kilman, Mavropanos, Scarles, Kante, Orford, Bowen, Solomon, Pablo, Castellanos. Subs: Areola, Ward-Prowse, Diouf, Veltman, Earthy, Landers, Golambeckis, Mayers, Ajala.
Match details
Injured: Soucek, Lamadrid. Unavailable: Engels. The match kicks off at 4pm BST on Sunday August 16, 2026, and is broadcast on Sky Sports.
