Why West Ham would be taking significant risk with Reiss Nelson transfer

West Ham have made a surprise move to see if Reiss Nelson is available on loan.

The Irons are in need of attacking reinforcements, with the Arsenal man capable of playing on either side.

Breakthroughs have been made in the Manor Solomon to West Ham deal but business is only beginning in E20.

Nuno Espirito Santo will want a reliable and capable side to carry out his ambitions for this season.

West Ham are certainly showing that with their recent moves in the market showcasing a ramped up approach.

However, the move for Nelson may be a significant risk for the Irons to take.

Reiss Nelson's injury record examined ahead of proposed West Ham move

Nelson is a concrete option for West Ham but the Englishman has barely played football over the last few years.

In fact, since 2020-2021, Nelson has only mustered up 1230 minutes as per Sofascore.

When correlated to 90 minute matches, that leaves the winger with just 13.6 games played in six years.

Those minutes do not scream a player than can take Nuno's squad to the next level, and that has seemingly caught up with him.

Over the last two seasons, Nelson has dealt with long-term and niggling injury issues that have further prevented his game time.

In 2025-2026, he missed 10 games through three different injuries while on loan at Brentford.

While in 2024-2025, when at Fulham, a hamstring injury kept him out for 28 games as per Transfermarkt.

Overall, those facts are far from appealing and it seems odd that he is a player emerging on the Hammers' radar.

If the manager wants numbers for his squad, Nelson seems like an unnecessary risk due to his unreliability.

What are the possible reasons West Ham are willing to take on the risk?

One factor behind West Ham's desire to take Nelson is the fact it would be an inexpensive deal seeing as it is a loan move.

The Hammers would likely pay a small amount for the loan while also covering his wages without any permanent fee.

Additionally, they could still be hampering on to the idea that Nelson can still make it big.

The winger was touted to have plenty of potential, with Arteta in 2022 stating, as relayed by Flashscore: "We think the potential is there and we think we've seen something in Reiss that is special."

However, Nelson has yet to hit those heights.

Perhaps, maybe a drop to the Championship is exactly what he needs to kickstart his career once more.

Either way, West Ham are the ones taking all the risk should a transfer go through.