Kildare U20 football manager Brian Flanagan fears that the U20 grade could be at risk this season if the GAA does not get sufficient time to run off its games.

The association are currently waiting on word of a potential return to inter-county training and, speaking to RTE Sport, Flanagan has urged it to keep the grade a priority.

"You get a sense that if you are managing inter-county senior or minor teams that you will hopefully have a championship and can be confident about that," he said.

"But for U20 players and managers you fear that this grade could be in danger of losing out with time pressures and that's the sense I get.

"We know the GAA will do all it can to keep competitions and games and it would be a real shame if anything happened at this level because these lads have already missed so much.

"If we are truly serious about the U20 grade being a developmental grade, we have to acknowledge that it’s a developmental phase not just with football – but in their lives too, socially, personally academically.

"I would just plead to give them a chance to play if we get the green light from the government. It would only be a six-week straight knockout championship."

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