Iain Henderson says Ireland's players have "full confidence" in their medical team, after his second row partner James Ryan was ruled out of Saturday's Six Nations finale against Scotland.
Ryan suffered a head injury less than two minutes into the 32-17 win against win against England at Twickenham, an incident which saw the hosts go down to 14 men following the red card to Charlie Ewels.
The sight of Ryan being helped from the field was especially concerning given the 25-year-old's history of concussion, with the Leinster lock visiting a concussion specialist following Ireland's Autumn Nations Series last November.
Head coach Andy Farrell isn't taking any chances with Ryan this week, with the player released back to his province where he will go through his return to play protocols.
Henderson - who is likely to return to the starting line-up this weekend against Scotland - says he and his teammates have no doubt their welfare is being taken care of by the Ireland medical staff and coaches.
"It's definitely frustrating, Big Cheese (James Ryan) wouldn't take something like that lightly either," Henderson said this afternoon.
"It definitely will be frustrating for him, but he's probably pretty confident that one thing he does have on his side is a really good medical team that is going to look after him and make the right decisions. And not only the medical team, I have - and I'm sure Cheese has - full faith in the coaching set-up, that they understand what the correct decisions are to be made around that and I'm certain that that won't be held against him.
"So he knows that he has the full support of the coaches, the medical staff and the players, too. The players are very much behind him in ensuring that when he does get to come back, that he's had the recommended rest and recovery time and that when he does get to come back into it, he has the full backing of everyone.
"Obviously it's a highly spoken about area at the minute, but as I said, Cheese has, and I think all the players have, full confidence in what our medical staff are doing."
The Ulster captain should replace Ryan as Tadhg Beirne's second row partner for this Saturday's meeting with Scotland at the Aviva Stadium, as Ireland look to complete a Triple Crown, and also keep their feint title hopes alive.
Henderson admits he played his part in an ill-disciplined Irish performance on Saturday at Twickenham.
"Obviously myself especially, there were a few really stupid ones in there, getting a bit excited and carried away trying to force things to happen rather than sticking to our game, doing what we do, sticking to our gameplan, what we've shown we can do throughout this campaign."
And he says Ireland need to also improve their discipline at the lineout, with the 30-year-old conceding a penalty for obstruction in the second half of the win, an offence Ireland have been penalised for consistently in the last year.
"In previous games it might be slightly different. Those all come from, be it a mis-lift or something which doesn't function beforehand, that's usually the issue with that.
"When you fold around the back, that’s usually due to a previous error which is probably frustrating on our part because we want to get good drill, good tempo.
"The chance of being able to lift silverware with any team, be it club or especially country, is absolutely enormous. One thing that very few… I'm actually not sure if any guys in this squad have lifted silverware internationally at home. That would be unbelievably massive.
"That one there, there are various things you can point at but, personally myself, I just need to make sure I’m more disciplined in behind Beirney there as he’s going up.
"Obviously we had a massive threat which we’d seen earlier the game with Itoje coming through the seams and when you’ve got someone like that, he’s your main worry there, and when you try to take that space in the middle of the lineout and he’s not there, that’s when it can show bad pictures to the referee.
"I think that’s something, you hear about referees and there are meetings and they’re hot on things, that’s definitely something we really need to be aware of, that they’re hot on at the minute," he added.
While the Six Nations title chances rest on France's meeting with England in Paris, a win of any kind against Scotland would see Ireland win a Triple Crown.
Henderson maintains that whether or not they get to lift the Six Nations trophy along with the Triple Crown plate, it would represent a big next step for himself and his teammates, none of whom have ever raised a cup at the Aviva Stadium.
"The chance of being able to lift silverware with any team, be it club or especially country, is absolutely enormous. One thing that very few… I'm actually not sure if any guys in this squad have lifted silverware internationally at home. That would be unbelievably massive.
"I think the excitement that that has brought us leading into this week has been huge. It's a massive driver for us, but we've got to make sure that we set that excitement aside to ensure that we can concentrate on our game.
"The guys who have been involved for a number of years know how difficult it is to come across some form of silverware at international level.
"So look, we can focus on the Triple Crown and hope that what we do during the week covers that off, and then obviously whatever happens after that will either be an added bonus, hopefully England can do the job."
Follow all of Ireland's Six Nations games via our live blogs on rte.ie/sport and on the RTÉ News App or listen to live radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1.
Watch live coverage of Wales v Italy (2.15pm) and France v England (8pm) this Saturday, 19 March on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
