Australia and New Zealand withdrew from the tournament, scheduled to be held in England from October 23 to November 27, earlier this month, citing concerns around player safety and the coronavirus situation in the respective countries.

New Zealand and Australia are the top-ranked men's and women's teams in the world, so their pulling out is a major blow. 

RLWC2021 chief executive Jon Dutton said today that there were three options on the table - proceeding as scheduled, a postponement to 2022 or cancelling the tournament altogether, but he admitted that time was not on organizers' side.

"We have just over 80 days from the first game so it is not a set-in-stone deadline, but sometime next week we should have a clear outcome," said Dutton.

"People want certainty. 

"It has been an incredibly challenging journey so far and what happened last week has derailed our plans.

"I think within the next 96 hours we have to speak to as many players as possible.

"We will provide players with a safe and secure environment, and we refute any allegations that will not be the case."

RLWC2021 today released a document of mitigation measures that will be distributed to players, as part of that dialogue.

In the document, RLWC2021 encourages all participants to be vaccinated, and said it would implement a testing regime with well-being screening on a daily basis, and that hotel conditions would be managed to create as safe an environment as possible.

RLWC2021 said that squads would not "be locked down" and that players and teams could go for a coffee either indoors or outdoors and that restaurants could be visited, but only on an exclusive-use basis.

Organisers have also pledged they will get permission for players to leave and re-enter Australia and that chartered flights would be arranged.

Dutton said his understanding was that the decisions from the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) and New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) were "irreversible", although options were being considered so that players from those countries could compete in a different format.

"We are in communication with Māori and Indigenous representatives and are excited by those propositions.

"Ultimately it is a matter for the International Rugby League, although a precedent has been set for this, but in different circumstances."

At the tournament in 2000 a New Zealand Māori team controversially competed at the height of the Super League war - a dispute over control of the top level of rugby league in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s.

Dutton added: "No players have said no to us directly. 

"We want to do a survey with that simple question anonymised.

"The worst scenario for us is to forge ahead and find other nations and players don’t get on planes to the United Kingdom.

"Rugby league deserves a tournament that we can deliver. 

"Supporters with tickets deserve an opportunity to watch the tournament but only if it can be delivered in the biggest and best way possible."

Men's, women's and wheelchair tournaments are all set to be played at RLWC2021 as things stand.