Will Coronavirus force NRL games to be played behind closed doors?

In itself, it's highly inconsiderate of him to organise the biggest day of his life during one of the busiest weeks of a sports editor's year, NRL season kick-off.

But it also looms as a last travelling hurrah before Coronavirus forces us all into our protective forts made of toilet paper, to fend off the demise of humanity.

On Thursday, the NRL announced all community and school visits are off to help prevent the spread of infection hours after the World Health Organisation officially declared COV-19 had reached pandemic levels.

The dominoes are falling.

An English Premier League game - between Manchester City and Arsenal - was postponed because several Arsenal players are in self-isolation in the wake of their Europa League game played before Greek opponents Olympiakos's owner Evangalos Marinakis contracted the virus.

Then Daniele Rugani, a 25-year-old defender for Italian football giants Juventus tested positive, the club announced, the nation already in lock down just trying to copy.

Paris St Germain hosted Borussia Dortmund in an empty stadium in a Champions League tie.

NBA games were called off. Utah Jazz player Rudy Cobert has it. The US College March Madness basketball tournament will only allow staff and some family in to watch games.

Tom Hanks announced he has it - and he survived being stranded on a deserted island with a volleyball.

Donald Trump enforces a European travel ban.

READ MORE: Host of Dragons with their own point to prove

So the evidence is now growing it is inevitable Coronavirus will have a sweeping impact on Australian sport.

The Matildas qualified for the Olympics during the week, but will the Games even go ahead?

The AFL has already said it is prepared to have games played in empty stadiums.

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg, his own career under a different kind of threat by the ARL Commission, flagged the possibility.

"We certainly hope we don't get to that point, but we'll listen to that advice, and if we have to act we will," he said this week.

Rather than cause hysteria - and the hoarding of loo paper and pasta shows it's already out there - the point of the column is to make it pointedly clear, this footy season will not be business as usual.

There is a very real prospect it may be significantly interrupted, on every level from elite competition to junior sport.

To mangle the words of the band REM, you may be feeling fine, but it's the end of the world as we know it.