Leeds Rhinos are doing everything possible to minimise impact of coronavirus insists Kevin Sinfield

At the moment, rugby league games scheduled for the coming week are still on, though with the situation developing by the hour that could change.

All professional football in this country has been put on hold until early next month and many other sporting events, at home and abroad, have also been called off.

Other than Rhinos’ game at Catalans Dragons, all Betfred Super League, and Coral Challenge Cup matches were played last weekend as the Rugby Football League followed government advice.

However, it seems inevitable the code will be disrupted if and when players or staff contract the virus.

Rhinos are due to play St Helens at Emerald Headingley on Friday evening and Sinfield said they are preparing on the assumption it will go ahead.

The result of a test on a Leeds player who showed coronavirus symptoms last week – which led to Rhinos deciding not to travel to Saturday’s game in Perpignan – came back negative and training was going ahead as normal today.

Sinfield said: “We control what we can control and at the minute we are planning for Saints, but at some stage it is going to affect one of us, some of us or all of us.

“I think we need to be mindful of that and it might be taken out of our hands.”

A medical briefing was held for the Leeds squad last week and Sinfield admitted players and staff have the same concerns as everyone else.

“We are all facing the same thing,” he pointed out. “Whether you are a builder, a solicitor, a milkman, I don’t think it matters.

“We have all seen what’s on the news, we are all aware of what’s going on and who’s vulnerable.

“We are all trying to do our best and look after people we are responsible for, but they [the players] are pretty resilient.

“I am sure they understand the right decision was made not to travel to Catalans and the reasons behind it.

“We have tried to keep them updated all the way through, but it is unprecedented for all of us.”

Rhinos are taking steps to minimise the impact and spread of coronavirus among and outside the squad .

“Our chief medical officer, Dr Marwan Al-Dawoud, has done a fantastic job collating everything and coming up with a really detailed plan for how to move forward,” Sinfield said.

“The training ground got fully disinfected on Thursday afternoon, which is a regular thing for us. Our scholarship trained on Friday and the academy played on Saturday, all in line with UK government guidelines and advice.”

Rhinos are now two games behind most of their rivals, having had the round two fixture at Huddersfield Giants called off last month because of Storm Ciara.

That is scheduled to be played on Tuesday, April 28, but there are no free weekends in the calendar and fixture planners already face a headache fitting in another delayed match.

Mass postponements would add to that and financially clubs are concerned about the implications of going a long period of time without income through the gate.

That would also be the case if – as in Australia’s NRL – a decision was made to continue the season, but behind closed doors.

Rhinos under-18s beat Bradford Bulls 44-10 at Headingley on Saturday, after leading 12-10 at half-time. Iwan Stephens crossed twice and kicked four goals, Liam Tindall bagged a brace and other try scorers were TJ Barton, Ben Sheils, AJ Wallace, Jack Mallinson and Joe Gibbons.