**Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand will end a three-month absence by playing against Hull on Saturday after finally overcoming his injury problems.**The 31-year-old England centre-back has not played since United’s 2-0 defeat at Liverpool on 25 October and fears had grown over his long-term fitness.
Boss Sir Alex Ferguson said: “Rio has been training very well in the last few weeks. He will play on Saturday.”
Ferdinand has featured only eight times for his club this season.
He has missed 19 games for United, and also sat out England’s friendly with Brazil, after suffering what was reported to be a calf injury believed to be related to a long-standing back problem.
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“Hopefully seeing Rio, Vidic, Evra, Brown and VDS back in defence can give us more of a will to attack”
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Ferdinand underwent intensive treatment from a specialist in London and Ferguson is now happy that his player is ready to return.
“This is the time to bring him back,” added the Scot. "We have gone through the whole situation with him in terms of enough training and endurance work.
"It is a big boost because the defence has been the weakest part of our game this season.
"At various times we have lost Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Edwin van der Sar, John O’Shea.
“It has been a rough time, so to get them back can only be good for us.”
Ferguson confirmed Vidic was still a fortnight away from recovering from a calf complaint, although that would at least put him in contention to face AC Milan in the Champions League knock-out round.
He revealed this week that O’Shea could miss the remainder of the season after suffering a blood clot in his leg, but Ferguson said Dimitar Berbatov will be available on Saturday after recovering from a dead leg.