NRL players have until Wednesday to decide if they will accept the governing body's proposal of an 87 per cent pay cut to ensure the survival of the sport if the governing body is forced to cancel the entire 2020 season as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Herald has been told that the NRL, working on a worst-case basis without further games this season, has just over $12 million left for player payments to be made before the end of the rugby league financial year on October 31.

The players have already been paid their share of $67m over the past five months, but the NRL doesn't have the funds to pay out the remaining $93m the players were expecting over the next seven months.

The $12m the NRL has works out at roughly $26,000 per player for the next seven months, if the salary cap is shared equally across the 480 players in each of the 16 clubs' top 30 squads.