Keith Andrews joined The Football Show on Wednesday night to reflect on some positive results for our underage teams recently.
Noel King's under-21 team scored a late winner through Shaun Donnellan to beat Azerbaijan 1-0 at Tallaght Stadium on Tuesday to move within three points of group leaders' Germany with a game in hand.
"In terms of Declan Rice and the under-21s last night - what a result and Noel King is flying with that squad," Andrews told Nathan.
The side have only conceded three goals in six group matches thus far and Andrews' believes that despite it being a collective effort - the West Ham youngster is crucial to the side.
"The one star is Declan Rice who has played on Friday night for the senior team and goes back down - whether he'll be available now for the rest of the campaign for Noel King will be, I'm sure, a bit of a sticky issue between him and Martin O'Neill.
"But look, the main focus should be Declan Rice's development.
"I've got sympathy for 21s managers because at times they get players taken away from them, obviously with injuries but it's still a development age but I think you've hit the nail on the head in terms of the personal available - it's probably not the most talented squad available to a manager," he added.
The former Republic of Ireland international went on to discuss the success at under-17 and the full show can be heard here:
