Premier League clubs fear being ordered to play behind closed doors by the end of this month and two teams told The Daily Telegraph last night that the season could still have to stop because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Concerns that playing Premier League games without spectators would just transfer the problem to pubs showing live matches are behind proposals such as cutting off the feed to such establishments or even showing any match in a closed stadium on free-to-air television.

But, in the worst-case scenario, the season could be suspended at a critical moment in the fixture list in terms of the title race and eight ­top-flight clubs still involved in the FA Cup and four in the Champions League.

The Government will hold crisis talks with sports leaders and broadcasters on Monday, but England’s European Championship warm-up game against Italy on March 27 at Wembley is under increasing doubt. Italy has placed up to 16 million of its people in quarantine and the president of the Italian players’ union has written to the country’s prime minister demanding all ­football there be stopped.

Former Italy midfielder Damiano Tommasi’s letter to Giuseppe Conte was endorsed by Mario Balotelli, who denounced the decision to play the weekend’s Serie A matches behind closed doors instead of ­calling them off.

The Brescia striker and former Manchester City star posted on ­Instagram: “Money isn’t worth our health, we have to wake up. Don’t write rubbish to me like: ‘But you are protected! What difference does it make if you play or not? Nothing happens to you behind closed doors! Don’t take away the only fun that people have at the weekend in the red zones!’

“I love football more than you … but playing means travelling by bus, train, aeroplane, sleeping in a hotel, in any case entering into contact with other people outside of your working environment. I already don’t get to see my children because of this damned coronavirus, because as you know they do not live in Lombardy, so it’s already infuriating and sad.

“I certainly don’t want my mother, who I see and eat with ­almost every day, to catch anything from me. Get over yourselves, we’ve had enough now. Guys, you can’t joke around with health.”