We consider the light-quark axial-vector current correlator in the framework of thermal QCD sum rules to: (a) find a relation between chiral-symmetry restoration and deconfinement, and (b) determine the temperature behaviour of the a(1)(1260) width and coupling. Our results show that deconfinement takes place at a slightly lower temperature than chiral-symmetry restoration. This difference is not significant given the accuracy of the method. The behaviour of the a(1)(1260) parameters is consistent with quark-gluon deconfinement, since the width grows and the coupling decreases with increasing temperature.