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Adama Traore has been ordered to stop lifting weights at West Ham’s training base, as Nuno Espirito Santo wants the winger to limit further muscle gain while the club battles relegation, with a trip to former team Fulham looming and survival pressure building in the Premier League.

Traore arrived from Fulham in January but has featured only five times for West Ham in all competitions, with just one start and no goals or assists so far, yet Nuno still expects the 30-year-old to play a key part in the club’s fight to stay up.

Nuno has long known Traore’s game and body type, having coached the winger across 136 matches in all competitions earlier in the manager’s career, and believes physical work now needs strict control rather than extra loading in the gym for a player already carrying substantial muscle mass.

The decision followed renewed focus on Traore’s strength, after Crysencio Summerville shared footage on social media of the Spain international bench pressing 145kg, contradicting Traore’s previous public claim that weight training was not part of the routine that shaped the powerful physique seen in English football.

Nuno stressed that Traore will still visit the gym, but only for controlled preventative exercises, and drew a comparison with Under-21s defender Airidas Golambeckis, who spends long spells working with weights as staff look to add size to a slighter frame rather than limit development.

“It’s incredible [his physique], it’s genetics. [But] his genetics has been like this for some time now, and he should avoid the gym, Nuno told reporters. I’ve told him to stay out of the gym. It’s one of the things that I think he needs to realise. It’s enough weight that he carries. He’ll do prevention work [in the gym], but he’s not there lifting weights.”

“For example, [Under-21s defender] Airidas Golambeckis, spends hours in the gymwe have to get weight on him. He’s the one that needsmuscle, it’s the other way around.”

Traore could now face Fulham on Wednesday almost immediately after leaving Craven Cottage, with West Ham sitting two points short of safety near the bottom of the Premier League table, and every remaining fixture carrying major weight for the London club’s season.

The Spaniard played 20 times for Fulham during the 2025-26 campaign and 79 matches in total for the club after joining from Wolves in 2023, producing 15 goals and assists across all competitions during that spell before moving across London to link up again with Nuno.

Nuno highlighted that Traore’s impact has been proven in both English football and with the Spain national team, and suggested that the challenge now is for the winger to learn West Ham’s tactical patterns and timing so that the squad can fully use the speed and dribbling threat.

“Traore’s unique. There are not many players in world football with his ability, pace and skills in one-on-one situations, Nuno added. He’s a talent that we have to take advantage of, but it will take time. He has to adapt and understand the dynamic of the team. But he’s proven in England and in the Spain squad not long ago, so we’re talking about a high-level player.”

West Ham will hope that managing Traore’s conditioning, while gradually integrating the winger more regularly, can help unlock extra attacking threat during the closing weeks of the season, as Nuno leans on a familiar player with a distinctive profile during a tight relegation contest.

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