Could football see games with halves of less than 45 minutes when it finally restarts?

According to Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, it is an option.

Discussions about the Premier League’s return are ongoing, with the next major announcement expected on Monday, but Taylor says players are “concerned” about safety.

“They are not stupid,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “They would have to be satisfied that it is safe to return.”

While the Premier League said the idea is “not on the table”, Football League chairman Rick Parry said “there haven’t been any discussions about it”, but did tell a Department of Culture, Media and Sport committee hearing: “I don’t think we should be ruling out any creative ideas.”

The Premier League is hopeful of a June 8 and Taylor’s comments came when he was discussing player fatigue.

He told the BBC: “We don’t know the future but we do know is what propositions have been put, what ideas have been put, the possibility of having more substitutes, games possibly not being the full 45 minutes each way with talks of neutral stadiums.

“Ideally, you want to keep the integrity of the competition, and of course, that was about playing home and away and having the same squad of players as before it was suspended.

“The very fact that you are in professional sport, you need to be very resilient. You need to be able to bounce back because you’ll get more setbacks than you will good times, and I would like to think that’s how my members are.

“So there’s lots of points to be made, but above all, can the seasons be completed and can they be completed safely?”