A former soldier who swapped his job serving on the front line in Afghanistan to study journalism has won a work placement at a Premiership football club.

Michael Bailey, 24, left his job as a Lance Corporal in the army to study for a BA Sports Journalism course at the University of Central Lancashire.

He left the army, where he served with the 14^th Signals Regiment, just 18 months ago and signed up for the course two days later.

Michael, who completed a tour of Afghanistan in 2010, was presented with the Matthew Hesketh Award 2012 for achieving the highest aggregate scores in the first half of the three year course.

The award was named after a first year BA Sports Journalism student who was killed in a road traffic accident in 2007.

His prize will see him complete work experience with Chelsea Football Club’s media team.

Said Michael: “This award is a great achievement, and I’m really pleased to receive it. It has been a really big change of pace going from the Army to university life, but it’s something I’d always wanted to do and after four years in the Army I decided now was the time.

“I’m really looking forward to going down to Chelsea and getting hands on experience of working in their media team – and of course the chance to meet some of the top Premier League players.”

Charlie Lambert, course leader and senior lecturer of BA Sports Journalism at UCLan said: “Michael has made the adjustment from Army to university life really easily, and he has a great ability to get on with everyone on the course.

“He has done consistently well in all aspects of the course, which has been a result of his hard work and determination.”