Nuno Espirito Santo rumours rubbished as Adama Boiro deals with West Ham injury

Adama Boiro's situation at West Ham United is far simpler than some perhaps thought.

The 24-year-old joined West Ham from Athletic Club in a deadline-beating deal this summer.

Bolstering Nuno Espirito Santo's options at left-back, the Spaniard was fresh off the back of playing Champions League football last term.

And in the Hammers' first game since his arrival against Derby, he was afforded 13 minutes to make his Irons debut.

Since then, however, he's not played another minute, and was last seen as an unused substitute for the trip to Bolton on 8 September.

Rumours of Boiro being out favour with Nuno have began to swirl as a result, but the actual truth of the matter is far less dramatic.

Why has Adama Boiro missed three-straight West Ham games?

Luckily for West Ham, Nuno isn't hugely short of options at the left-back position.

Morato, Ollie Scarles, Kyle Walker-Peters and Ezra Mayers can all play there, meaning Boiro has some competition for minutes in E20.

It's important, then, that he takes his chances when they arrive, especially considering West Ham will need to make a permanent option call at some point.

So the fact he's already missed a number of games isn't the start Boiro would've been wanting, but it's actually been through no fault of his own.

Basque Country-based news outlet Deia reveals that Boiro has been suffering from a minor physical discomfort, which is the reason for his absence.

The report touches on the speculation of a fractured relationship with Nuno, but it's now revealed that's not the case, and in fact he is just injured.

But what are Boiro's chances of winning the starting left-back spot from Morato once he's back to fitness after the international break?

Boiro situation to test Nuno's man-management skills

As aforementioned, it's largely been Morato who has covered at left-back during Boiro's recent absence.

The Brazilian, however, is a central defender by trade and perhaps played his best game so far for the Hammers there against Wrexham.

Morato seems to have pushed Scarles out of the left-back spot now, but Nuno must be careful committing to keeping him there.

Max Kilman and Konstantinos Mavropanos are his only two senior and natural centre-backs.

Teenage duo Mayers and Golambeckis play there too, but are still vastly inexperienced and perhaps not quite ready to handle major first-team workloads.

So, it's up to Nuno to strike a good balance of keeping Morato on the flank if he's playing well, but also not forgetting to utilise Borio to keep his backline fresh.