Preston North End and Seán Maguire for Liam MacCarthy

Championship side turn their hand to a spot of hurling during team bonding in Cork

Seán Maguire and his Preston teammates played hurling as part of a team bonding session in Cork. Photograph: Preston North End/Twitter

Thu Jul 11 2019 - 09:50

They say the Championship is the most difficult league in the world to get out of - so Preston North End boss Alex Neil has taken a novel approach to toughening up his players ahead of another gruelling campaign in England's second tier.

North End played a friendly against Cork City on Monday night, running out 2-0 winners at Turner’s Cross.

And they were back out on the training pitch on Tuesday, embracing the Rebel spirit as they turned their hand to hurling during a team bonding exercise.

️ The squad gave hurling a go this afternoon as part of their team bonding session, see how they got on! #pnefc pic.twitter.com/QDjwrTvqD6
— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) July 9, 2019

With a healthy Irish contingent on the books at Deepdale, there's no guessing which players stood out during the puck about - with former Cork forward Sean Maguire perhaps the pick of the bunch.

Preston for Liam MacCarthy?