TODAY is key with regards to Theo Fages' recovery from the head knock he suffered in the opening minute of Saints' loss to Salford last week.

A decision is expected this morning as to whether the French half back is clear to play against Huddersfield Giants at the Totally Wicked Stadium, with the 19-man squad to be named around lunchtime.

Earlier this week head coach Keiron Cunningham was confident he would make it and said he came through training well on Monday.

"Theo’s still feeling the knocks, bumps and bruises but he’s on the road to recovery. We’re hoping there’s a long enough turnaround to get him sorted," he said after the session.

“Apart from that, we’re in pretty good shape. He’s got to get everything done by Wednesday, he’s got to pass a few progressions but he should be ok."

Upon further reflection, Cunningham remained in no doubt that Saints still had the armoury to have garnished a win at Salford after losing Fages.

“Our structure changed a little bit, we had to juggle the side around a little bit and it hurt us," he admitted.

"Even so, we should still have won the game. We had lots of opportunities and we just didn’t execute good enough in that first half.

"We juggled things around at half time, pretty much moved nearly the full team around to get Jonny (Lomax) in the halves and it seemed to work for us.

"We just didn’t post the points we should have posted.

"Credit to Salford, they defended outstandingly and it was a great game to watch but if we’d been a little bit smarter we’d have executed and posted a few more points.”

Cunningham admitted Lomax had not trained in the stand-off role since pre-season.

"A little bit in pre-season but it’s very similar to playing full-back anyway," he said.

"He’s been a stand off all his life, we turned him into a full back.

"He looked at me with crossed eyes at half time when I said he was going there but he got on with it and set up a nice try for us.

“You never know, if we’ve got another half all over again it may be something that we look at doing again.

"Jonny’s a good full back and we’re hopeful that we don’t have to use him in the halves because it means our halves are going to stay fit."

He added: “The effort was brilliant from the players.

"We played against a good side who defended exceptionally well on the day.

"It was a really good game of rugby and we were close to pinching it again at the end but we had lots of opportunities but just didn’t post the sufficient points at the right time and sometimes that happens in sport."

Another name likely to be in the 19-man squad this week is winger Adam Swift, who picked up an injury against Warrington and missed the Salford trip.

“Adam Swift is better than what he was last week, so I’m hopeful he’ll be right for this week,” said Cunningham.

Craig Richards is also available again too after injury, though Jack Ashworth - who has been in great form in the reserves - is facing four to six weeks on the sidelines with an ankle problem.