“Our norm is to go Switzerland or Austria at this time of year in pre-season for a little bit of altitude training in the forests,” Sam told West Ham TV. “This year we have come to Ireland and the overall care and hospitality that Cork City have shown us has been absolutely excellent.
“Along with the facilities - two fabulous pitches, a great hotel and superb areas in the forest for the lads to do their early-morning bike rides - it is also a lot shorter journey than going to Austria so everybody has enjoyed it that little bit more.
“The training has been as intense as ever at this time of year and everybody is feeling a little fatigued now, but they’ll get 45 minutes in and, as long as we don’t get any injuries it will have been a very worthwhile trip. Both us and Cork City have also enjoyed it very much and hopefully we can stay in contact in the future because of the facilities here and the way they have looked after us.”