Smith said after Melbourne's season-opening win against Manly that he felt continuing to play amid the coronavirus crisis, even in stadiums with no spectators, was placing players and their families at unacceptable risk.

Myriad other high-profile sporting events around the world, including English Premier League soccer, NBA basketball, WTA tennis, PGA golf and formula one motor racing, have all been put on hold because of concerns about the pandemic sweeping the globe.

The NRL's attitude is that the show must go, at least for the time being, and Newcastle players are happy to support that policy.

They will play Wests Tigers at a locked-out Leichhardt Oval on Sunday.

"Cameron is entitled to his opinions, but as players here at the Knights, I think we just want to play footy," Newcastle back-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon said.

"We'll follow the NRL guidelines and what they have to say. We take it day by day and hopefully play out the remaining games of football and see this through."

NRL chairman Peter V'Landys has warned that the game faces "catastrophic" financial consequences if play was suspended, and chief executive Todd Greenberg admitted on Monday that there was a possibility players could face pay cuts in the worst-case scenario.

Fitzgibbon said he had not given any thought to whether suspending the competition could impact on players' livelihoods.

"It's a cliche, but I'm taking it one day at a time, week by week," he said.

"I haven't looked too deep into it, haven't heard too much, so I'll just roll with the punches."

Fitzgibbon's teammate Mitch Barnett, however, admitted the prospect of potentially losing income was a concern.

"I'd be silly to say 'no'," he said.

"But if that day comes, we'll address it then. But our main focus is just playing this week against the Tigers.

"We don't know what tomorrow can bring. We're just focusing on what we can control, and that's this weekend against the Tigers."

The Knights held a briefing yesterday with medical staff to reaffirm protocols designed to minimise the risk of coronavirus infection.

"They've just kept us up to date with what has actually happened in the world, and just some things that we can do to help prevent it, with our hygiene and stuff like that," Barnett said.

The rugged back-rower agreed that the Tigers may lose some of their home-ground advantage on Sunday, given the absence of their famously vocal fans, but added: "We aren't really focused on any of that sort of stuff. We're worried about ourselves mainly. If we do our job to the best of our ability, I don't reckon it matters who we play or what stadium we're at, I know we'll go really well."

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