Players' pay cut position revealed by Portsmouth skipper Tom Naylor

The Blues skipper is confident that will not be necessary, however, after the Fratton hierarchy gave assurances over staff receiving their wages following the suspension to the English season.

Football is grappling with the best ways to manage the massive financial impact brought on by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Premier League has announced it will ask players to take a 30 per cent paycut through conditional reductions and deferrals, as it advanced £125m to the EFL and National League.

Pompey’s position is strong and sustainable, as underlined in a period where the club has announced profits of £2m in its most recently published accounts.

But there remains uncertainty about what lies ahead for football, and Naylor feels his team-mates would be open to do anything which may help moving forward.

Naylor said: ‘Mark (Catlin) has told us we’re getting paid 100 per cent of our money until the league says otherwise.

‘That’s brilliant for the club to do that and say that to all players and staff.

‘There’s a few teams out there who aren’t as fortunate to be given that same backing - big clubs, too.

‘Players are being asked to take pay cuts, but the club is standing by their staff.

‘Every club is different and if it comes to the same stage here we’ll all have a big meeting about it.

‘Luckily, though, the club is backing everyone - and that’s a massive thing.

‘If it comes to that day we’d have to do everything we could to look after the club.

‘Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but if it does we’d talk about it.’

Naylor explained the lines of communication have been open between the Pompey hierarchy and players, with it now approaching four weeks since they last played against Fleetwood.

That’s included the 28-year-old being involved in conference calls with the board and owner Michael Eisner.

Naylor added: ‘As captain, I’ve been speaking to people at the club and the other boys quite a lot, to see what they’ve been doing.

‘I’ve been speaking to Mark a lot who’s filling me in on things to tell the lads.

‘I had a conference call last week with the chairman, Mark and the gaffer which was good. They were fully behind us as we knew they would be.

‘I was speaking on behalf of the boys and it was nice to be invited into that call.

‘They have a meeting every few months and the chairman wanted me on the call. He wanted me to be a part of it and speak for the players.

‘Then there was a phone call about the furlough a couple of days later.

‘There’s a lot of clubs doing it, big clubs as well. I don’t know why you wouldn’t.

If it’s out there and it’s doable to help in this time then why not?

‘The club doesn’t want to go down the road it did a few years ago again.

‘The chairman is doing everything right and we’ve just announced a profit, so we’re taking steps forward. It’s a credit to the chairman and the board.’