Caelan Doris says he is in a "much better place" than this time last year having missed the 2021 Six Nations due to concussion symptoms.
Doris' Test career started on a worrying note when he suffered a concussion just four minutes into the 2020 Six Nations in his championship debut against Scotland.
Then he stood down from Ireland duty before last year's championship having suffered further symptoms in a training game with Ulster.
The Leinster back row saw a specialist in the UK in what he later described as a 'weird and uncertain period', as for a short time his concentration, short-term memory and speech suffered.
But cognitive tests put his mind at rest and he returned before the end of last season, before he was Ireland's player of the November series and man of the match in the victory over the All Blacks.
Doris is nailed on to start against Wales at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
"Yeah, I'm in a way better place than this time last year, I'm much more comfortable with it all," said Doris.
"I've had a pretty clean season so far this year and yeah, hopefully that will continue, touch wood.
"Having those tests definitely helps with that, it gives me peace of mind. It's still sometimes there but no, it's much less than it was last year.
"I'm loving playing at the minute, both in Leinster and in here, two top-class environments, great coaches and players and it's really enjoyable.
"From having missed the Six Nations last year, I'm pretty excited to be hopefully a part of it this year and hopefully getting stuck in this weekend."
Doris was pleased with Ireland's performances in beating Japan, New Zealand and Argentina in November, which he puts down to the players' better understanding of the game plan after an inconsistent Six Nations.
Andy Farrell's men will be favourites against the reigning champions, who have a lot of injury problems.
"We're confident but we're not going to be complacent," Doris insisted. "We're happy with how November went obviously - three wins, we're happy with that and with how we're evolving.
"So far this week has been very much on ourselves, on getting our own stuff in order obviously having been back with our clubs for the last couple of months.
"All being on the same page for the last few days has been important, so we're confident, we've trained well the last few days, but of course we can't let any complacency slip in and we know that Wales are a very good team.
"They had a pretty successful November as well and have been dangerous over the last few years, so yeah, we're looking forward to it.
"It's incredibly competitive. Six Nations always is, but you can say arguably this year even more so.
"We know that there is still a lot more in us. Looking back at some of the games, yeah, we played well, but there are so many opportunities to get better and so many areas for growth.
"So continuing to develop and evolve, and not letting any complacency set in is important.
"You always talk about the perfect game, and it's hard to even imagine what that looks like.
"But some of the tries we scored throughout November were pretty good ones, and we think we can up it another gear and bring more of that."
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