Preseason training for the NRL squad resumed on Thursday with more than a dozen players missing after returning positive tests over the Christmas break.

The NRLW squad will also be light on when it begins preparations for the upcoming season on Monday, with several players either testing positive or being deemed close contacts.

NRL protocols dictate that all players had to return negative Rapid Antigen Tests [RAT] on three consecutive days, or a negative PCR test, before returning to club environments.

With positive tests returned at various stages of the Christmas break, Dragons CEO Ryan Webb says the coming fortnight will see a gradual return of both squads.

"When you combine male, female [players] and staff, there's a subtstantial number of people unable to head into training at the moment," Webb said.

"We've got a few people trickling in each day as the different [isolation] periods finish. We hope those isolation numbers will lessen as we move forward, but no one's really sure how it's going to look.

"I think every club's going to have to work through this situation if they haven't already. We can't do anything, it's running through the community.

"Hopefully everyone can come back healthy sooner rather than later. We haven't had anyone showing heavy symptoms either, so that hasn't been a concern for us in that sense.

"It changes pretty quickly, but you just follow the rules the best you can, stick to the NRL's protocol, and see how January plays out."

The Omicron variant continues to wreak havoc on the country's summer sports, with the NBL, BBL and A-League forced to postpone a host of fixtures, threatening the viability of their respective seasons.

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Physical demands and contractual broadcasting considerations make similar in-season postponements a virtual impossibility for the NRL.

With preseason fixtures and the NRLW season set to begin in mid-to-late February, Webb said all clubs face another season of adapting to rapidly changing protocols.

"I wouldn't say it's going to be more challenging because the last two seasons have thrown some pretty good challenges up," Webb said.

"It will pose some unique chellenges and we'll just have to work through those as we have the last couple of years.

"That's why you've got the experts involved in there to make those calls. They consult with the clubs and the NRL to come up with something that works.

"What they've come up with the last couple of years has worked so I'm sure we'll work through it over the next six weeks as we run into our first preseason games.

"I'm sure we'll have something in place by then that best suits the times and I'm sure that'll probably have to adjust as we go as well."

With the outbreak set to carryover into the season proper, there have been calls for the NRL to relax restrictions and allow a club's entire top 30 to be available each week.

It remains to be seen whether that occurs but, having added depth to its list this year, Webb feels the club is in a good position to cover sudden unavailabilities should they arise through the campaign.

"It's not something we were envisaging but it certainly can't hurt," Webb said.

"You see other sports that are running now, whether it's the Big Bash, the NBL and American sports, players are going to fall out and become unavailable throughout the year.

"Depth's definitely going to play a role, probably more so that it has in previous years, if things continue the way they are at the moment."

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