NSW recorded more locally acquired cases of COVID-19 than returning travellers for the second straight day on Tuesday, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian moving to reintroduce restrictions to quash any potential Melbourne-style surge.

Both the NRL and the AFL have reportedly begun to investigate another evacuarion to continue their seasons after already fleeing Victoria in recent weeks.  

For the A-League, which was caught flat-footed in its attempt to move Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory and Western United out of Victoria, the situation presents a challenge after planning on completing all but one of their remaining 27 fixtures and finals campaign in rapid-fire fashion in NSW.

But although that remains “Plan A” according to league boss Greg O’Rourke, competition organisers are now taking steps to investigate the possibility of relocating the league's remaining contests to Queensland if the situation in Sydney deteriorates.

“We are now exploring two options,” O’Rourke said this afternoon. “The first option, and our preference, is to locate all the A-League teams in New South Wales.

“We would have Perth here on Thursday as a matter of course, so we would have had nine of the 11 teams here already. We will now bring in, after their next game in Queensland, both Adelaide and Brisbane so then all 11 teams will be based in NSW.

“We’ve been speaking to government today at many levels, many different departments in NSW about the current restrictions and what they feel the impact would be.

"At this point in time, knowing that these things can change quite dramatically, our position is that we would continue to play all our games here.

"We would be able to operate as a workplace and we would continue to do that until we were advised otherwise.

“At this current point in time, our understanding is that that’s all very workable.

“The second option we’re now looking at is to relocate all 11 teams, one of them there already, but the other 10 A-league teams into Queensland.

“We have today spoken to stadia in Queensland, we have today spoken to accommodation options and also around securing training venues for those teams. That is also what we are looking at as our back-up plan.

“Whilst that’s our plan B and – we’re probably up to plan O, P or Q by now in terms of trying to get this league re-started, that would be our opening position.”

Although Sydney's numbers remain relatively small, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has designated NSW suburbs Liverpool and Campbelltown as COVID-19 hotspots – meaning non-Queensland residents that reside in or have visited these areas will not be able to enter Queensland.

The designation of hotspot areas previously played havoc for Melbourne teams seeking to relocate to NSW, with a number of players not included in last Monday’s attempted flight to NSW because they lived in a designated hotspot area of the city.

“It’s clear to understand that those LGA hotspots haven’t been defined by the NSW Government, they’ve only been defined by the Queensland Government when it comes to relocating into their border," O'Rourke said. 

“So, those teams would be free if they don’t have hotspot individuals in them to apply for a border application and cross over without a quarantine period. That’s the current position as we stand here today at 3:30 pm.

“We are working on the options of when we would feel that we need to relocate, [that could be] starting this weekend [if needed].”

According to the A-League boss, while the three Melbourne clubs – currently undergoing a 14-day quarantine period in Western Sydney – wouldn’t be able to relocate immediately in the event of a move north, they wouldn’t be forced to undergo a further two-week quarantine period once they did enter the Sunshine state.

“Victorian teams would not be able to relocate until that quarantine finished – which is around noon of July 25,” O’Rourke explained.

“The current restrictions in Queensland for their border would be that people that had not been in a Victorian hotspot for two weeks are allowed. So obviously the Victorians coming up to Sydney and quarantining for 14 days satisfy that.”

The A-League is set to resume on Friday night when Sydney FC meet Wellington Phoenix at Jubilee Stadium, with the full fixture earmarked for release later on Tuesday evening.