Top News

Axel Disasi has joined West Ham on loan with the aim of playing his way into France’s World Cup squad, Nuno Espirito Santo has revealed. The £38.5m centre-back has been frozen out at Chelsea and not played a single minute this season.

Disasi has now joined West Ham’s relegation fight - and his fitness will be assessed before Saturday's relegation six-pointer at Burnley with Jean-Clair Todibo suspended. The former Monaco defender appeared as a sub in the 2022 World Cup final but has won only one more cap since arriving in the Premier League.

But the West Ham boss said: “He's in a good place physically and I think that he can help us. He is a strong defender, good on the ball.

• Nuno Espirito Santo delivers brutal Lucas Paqueta parting shot amid survival vow

• Nuno Espirito Santo reveals how Adama Traore's secret weapon can help West Ham stay up

“It might sound even selfish to say it, but he has his personal objectives and one of them is to go to the World Cup.

“So if he has this purpose on him, we have to take advantage of it and use it and he has to show and prove that he is good enough to play and be ambitious to go to the World Cup. But first he has to do his job here.”

The Irons boss also has delivered a final parting shot at departed Lucas Paqueta as he claimed West Ham now have a “committed squad” for their relegation battle. And Santo praised the courage of new signings in the winter window and claimed: “I'm totally convinced that we're going to be OK.”

West Ham have brought in Pablo, Valentino Castellanos, Adama Traore as well as Disasi and Keiber Lamadrid on loan. The Portuguese boss said: “You have to be brave to join a club in the situation that we are in and they've shown this commitment to come here and help. I don't recall one player saying no to us, personally.

"We don't have to sell. We have to show the reality, we don't sell dreams. The reality is all the players have joined a big club and should be proud to be here.”

West Ham lost 3-2 at Disasi’s host club Chelsea after leading 2-0 on Saturday and saw Jean-Clair Todibo sent off. He will now be banned at Burnley.

Santo admitted: It still hurts everybody because we felt that the game was ours for us to take so it still hurts but we move we move forward we move forward and the positive we play really good football we really play good football it's almost like saying let's keep these standards let's get these standards for all the games remaining of the season if our standards are there if we play this good we're gonna be okay.”

Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us - and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.