CHRIS Zebroski will be combining club community work with football as part of his new deal with Eastleigh.

The 6ft 1in striker, who had a brief spell with the Spitfires in 2013, has plenty to prove as a player and as a person following his return to the Silverlake Stadium.

After helping Eastleigh to the Conference South play-offs in 2012/13, the former Torquay, Bristol Rovers and Cheltenham forward left the club that summer to join Newport County in the Football League.

But his time in south Wales was ended when he was jailed for four years and four months in April 2015 for robbery and assault.

The 30-year-old has put pen to paper on a 12-month deal at Eastleigh with the option of an additional year. It is his first contract since coming out of prison.

Richard Hill, the manager who first signed Zebroski for the Spitfires, is happy to stick his neck out again and give the Swindon-born player another opportunity to prove himself on the pitch.

And with Eastleigh’s community department increasingly active locally, Zebroski will get the chance to do some good work off it too.

“It’s alright people in glass houses throwing stones, but I like to give people second chances,” said Hill.

“I like people that have got something to prove and Chris has admitted he has done wrong in the past.

“He needs another chance and he’s going to get that opportunity here.

“He turned down opportunities with other clubs to come and play for us. Chris is as excited as anything to come and play for Eastleigh.

“He liked it when he was here before and he wants to play for this football club.

“Chris is a nice bloke and he’s also an athlete and he’s got an edge to him.

“He’s got this opportunity with Eastleigh and it’s up to him what he does with it.”

Allied to their ambitions of clinching promotion from the National League, Eastleigh are keen to do their bit for the community.

They have just been presented with the Hampshire FA Inclusive Club-of-the-Year award and are working hand in hand with the Saints Foundation on a new Pan-Disability League.

The club regularly send players out to visit children in hospital and tomorrow Eastleigh defender Michael Green, along with ex-Spitfires Yemi Odubade and Joe Partington, are doing a day’s painting at the New Milton-based accommodation of the Shine South charity, which supports families, carers and anyone living with spina bifida or hydrocephalus.

Zebroski will also get involved in community projects, drawing on his own experiences to help people find the right path forward.

“Chris has said he’d like to do it,” said Hill.

“He wants to speak to younger people who are going through one or two problems in life like he’s had.”