Aston Villa star Tyrone Mings shows his class with brilliant gesture to NHS staff working in Bristol

Tyrone Mings is giving free entry to his academy for children of front-line NHS workers.

The Aston Villa defender was born in Bath and has plenty of roots in Bristol, having set up an academy in 2017.

He was also once on the books at Bristol Rovers, but was unable to win a scholarship at the club, and instead played locally in non-league football for Yate Town and Chippenham Town until his big break came in 2012 when he joined Ipswich Town.

Tyrone Mings academy

Mings then moved into the Premier League with Bournemouth, which was the spur for him to launch academy sessions in Bristol and the South West.

Last year's move to Aston Villa saw him expand the sessions to Birmingham, and he revealed to talkSPORT that NHS workers will be able to bring their children to a free term of sessions.

Mings said: "We’ve got the academy with a few sites in Bristol and a couple in Birmingham as well.

"We’ve opened the doors to NHS workers and key workers – they can come at the end of this awful virus for a term, about six weeks, so that they can bring their kids along for free.

"So, hopefully, that can be a nice little boost and break for the NHS workers that are currently under fire and working all hours of the day and doing a fantastic job.

"If we can try and give them back some of that time, then we’ve played our part as an academy, trying to give something back to the community.

"Being based in Birmingham, there’ll be a lot of Aston Villa fans doing great work for the NHS and in the public sector, so anybody is welcome to bring their kids along."

The popular 27-year-old also revealed he had taken up piano during the coronavirus shutdown.

He said: "I'm enjoying (the time off) because it's a time we're not going to get again as footballers.

"I'm itching to get back to football, though.

"I've actually bought a piano so that's keeping me entertained.

"It's a lot easier said than done, though. It's so hard.

"I have a gym at home too, so I can relatively keep in shape. It's difficult to replicate what we'd be doing at work.

"I'm just sitting here waiting for it to blow over."