The Irish Football Association has confirmed that a damaged stand at Windsor Park will have to be demolished and rebuilt.

Northern Ireland's crucial Euro 2016 qualifier against Romania on June 13 will still go ahead at the Belfast venue, although work must be carried out within the next eight weeks.

IFA chief executive Patrick Nelson made the announcement after reports had surfaced suggesting that cracks in the stadium's structure required immediate attention.

"The Board of the Irish Football Association met today to ratify a recommendation from the National Football Stadium project team that the West Stand at the stadium be made safe through demolition following recent structural damage," the statement read.

"This recommendation came after a series of meetings with all interested parties which considered all the available evidence and following the review of a structural engineer's report which was received towards the end of last week."

Nelson added: "Naturally it is sad that we are having to resolve the West Stand issues in this manner, however the project team has worked tirelessly over the past three weeks to develop a plan which will enable us to play Romania in our own home in eight weeks' time."

Windsor Park is currently undergoing major redevelopment work, which will see the capacity raised to 18,000 by October 2015.