ECB chair Ian Watmore has admitted that they are prepared for "more challenging discussions" about this winter's Ashes series.
The ECB remain locked in talks with their counterparts at Cricket Australia over the quarantine conditions and restriction that England 's players will face when they make the trip down under.
Australia currently has some of the most strict coronavirus restrictions in the world in place and there are concerns about whether the player's families will be able to join them on the tour.
Speaking yesterday, Jos Buttler admitted that he would "not be comfortable" playing in both the T20 World Cup and the Ashes if he could not see his family.
He said: "For myself, if I had to do a World Cup and an Ashes – four, five months without seeing my family – I wouldn’t be comfortable doing that"
Now, Watmore has offered an update on the situation, admitting that there are still "issues to sort out".
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: "There is no simple date it must be decided by, apart from when that plane goes to Australia.
"Joe and the players not involved in the World Cup will be leaving in the first week of November so we have until then to change things.
"We are trying to build up a picture, either confident or less confident, of the conditions.
"There are issues to sort out with Cricket Australia, there are issues for CA to sort out with their government and for the federal government to sort out with state governments. It is a complicated picture.
"CA know what we need to make the tour successful and they're working to deliver it. We need to see the detail, check it out with the players and management and either push back or commit.
"It's not a red-line type of discussion, but we're working hard to provide an environment in which our players and their families want to go and perform to their best.
"If Australia can deliver that, great, if not we may have to have more challenging discussions."
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