Steve Harmison admitted he would not play in an Ashes tour in Australia if his family was not able to travel.
The current England squad may be faced with that dilemma this winter due to the current coronavirus restrictions in Australia.
Players have spent months in COVID-secure bubbles and quarantine over the last year, and face that prospect again following the end of the summer.
Tours of Pakistan and Bangladesh are followed by the T20 World Cup – and the likes of Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler will likely fly straight from the UAE to Australia in November.
Their families are currently unlikely to be able to join them Down Under and a number of players are said to be considering pulling out of the tour.
Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara told talkSPORT the players should suck it up as you have a very short career as a sportsman.
Reacting to the news, and O’Hara’s comments, former England fast bowler Harmison said: “It’s gone of that day when you went on tour for five months and you didn’t see your family. You went all around the world.
“On my first Ashes tour, my daughter, Abby, was born on December 4, I saw her for the first time on February 26.
“I didn’t come home. I couldn’t come home. I only came home for four days and went back to the World Cup.
“It’s gone of that day. It’s completely different.
“The next time we went, we fought tooth and nail to get our families (there) because of reasons like that.
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“Four years on, we fought everything with the ECB to get our families to Brisbane for the first Test match to be with us all the way through to January because tours had changed, times had changed.
“We’d go away for huge amounts of times, but it’s not like that any more. The mindset has to changed.
“You see them on the boat going to Australia for six months at a time… those days have gone.
“The COVID world we are in, I’d have huge anxieties about going for four months of the year, I had them anyway and that was a different time.
“Australia is such a difficult place to go when you are cooped up and locked in. I can see why the players want their families there and if they are not going to let them in and not let them be free to roam, I don’t think I’d go.
“If I put my hand on my heart, I’m not sure I would go with what is happening in the world.”
The England players will reportedly meet with the ECB to try and find a solution to the issue with some facing four months away from their families.
When asked if the Ashes should be cancelled, Harmison said: “I don’t think it is the right thing to do. I think they have conversations so every avenue is explored so we can play an Ashes series.
“If it comes to the players and the administrators are not going to help the players be as comfortable as they possibly can, then there’s not going to be any alternative but to postpone it or move it to the UAE.”