LOAN star forward Mark Flanagan will return to the side when Halifax put their season on the line against Widnes at the Shay tonight.
Flanagan, the son of former Great Britain international Terry, has been sidelined since tearing a muscle in his leg against Salford almost a month ago.
But he has been included in a 19-man squad for the National League One play off date with Steve McCormack's side and coach Matt Calland confirmed he would play.
"Mark will be back in the team," said Calland.
"He's been very good for us since he came here and we've missed him over the last few weeks.
"He runs very good lines, is very sound defensively and has that enthusiasm and energy you get from young players."
Former Widnes target Ben Black also looks likely to play at half back after a similar injury.
Calland declined to confirm whether Black would be fit, but the absence from the initial selection of his likely stand in, Thomas Coyle, indicates the Australian will feature.
Long-term injury victims Mick Govin, David Larder and Dana Wilson are not picked, although Calland confirmed the trio would feature in Saturday's reserve play off at Leigh on Saturday if Fax win tonight.
"We cannot afford to take too many risks," said Calland.
Defeat tonight would end Fax's year, but Calland insisted his side's last minute drop to third in the table could yet work in their favour.
Fax, in the top two for most of the season, were finally leapfrogged by Super League-bound Celtic Crusaders on the penultimate weekend of the regular season.
That means Fax will have to play three matches rather than a possible one if they want to make the Grand Final at Warrington at the end of the month.
But after struggling to find their best form in recent weeks, Calland was keen to accentuate the positive.
"We wanted to finish second and there's no getting away from the fact that we are disappointed we didn't manage to do that," said Calland, whose side won a bizarre - and meaningless - final day encounter at Featherstone 64-44 nine days ago.
"But it could turn out to be the best thing for us.
"It's no secret we haven't been at our best recently and at least this way we have some games to try and get some real form together.
"Tonight is going to be all about the battle in the middle of the field.
"If we let Widnes dominate there, Bob Beswick and Mark Smith will kill us.
"But if we get on top, Mark Gleeson and Sean Penkywicz will do the same to them."
The full article contains 465 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
