England National Football Team manager, Sven Göran Eriksson officially opened the new gym at The Five Lakes Hotel and Country Club last month, while the squad was there preparing for its friendly international against Croatia on Wednesday 20 August.

Privately owned by Abraham Bejerano, who also owns Sopwell House in St Albans, the 160sq m facility at the Essex club replaces the former gym which was located next to spa facilities the first floor.

The new gym, housed in a former conference room, now sits next to the hotel’s existing sports and leisure facilities, which includes a pool, indoor tennis and badminton hall and an aerobics studio, which opened earlier this year.

The gym has been fully equipped by Technogym with 16 pieces of cv equipment and nine pieces of resistance equipment and represents an investment of £300,000.

Membership of the gym currently stands at 12,000.

The space previously occupied by the old gym will be used to house a further 14 treatment rooms for the hotel spa.