Iain Henderson has quashed speculation that he was leaving Ulster by signing a two-year contract extension with the IRFU.
The Ulster skipper, who has played 139 times for the province and made 72 Ireland appearances, is remaining at the Kingspan Stadium until the end of the 2024/25 season.
Henderson, 31, was linked with a move to the Top 14 - Toulouse were mentioned as a possible suitor - as the province failed to make an impact in the knock-out stages of the URC and Champions Cup.
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It was an injury-hit season for the highly experienced second row but he was named in Andy Farrell's training squad for the Rugby World Cup and will hope to play a central role at France 2023 come September - his third finals.
"I am delighted to sign with the IRFU and Ulster for another two seasons and look forward to continuing my journey in Ireland," said Henderson.
"It is an incredible honour pulling on my provincial and international colours and I believe that there is more to come as we look to build in the months ahead."
"I genuinely believe that with Ulster we have a lot of exciting prospects, a lot of good things are in place, obviously it was a frustrating season but going forward I do think we're building on something special.
"And down here (with Ireland), it's just moving from excitement level to excitement level, knowing what's in front of us.
He suffered a fractured forearm against Scotland in Edinburgh in March, in the penultimate game of Ireland's Grand Slam winning campaign, but returned to full training this week as Ireland got their summer training camp underway ahead of the warm-up Tests in August.
"Look, obviously the Grand Slam was amazing, I thought the guys did an excellent job from the first week in January and our week away in Portugal right the way through to the final game," said Henderson.
"A lot of the guys carried that back into their provinces, which was brilliant to see.
"Obviously the injury was frustrating but look, it happens. I could get over it pretty quickly and it was just brilliant to be part of the whole thing.
"I came back in here at the start of the week for the pre-season and I'm just working away, so I've been back into everything full on so no issues there."
The form of Munster's Tadhg Beirne, along with regular starter James Ryan, means there is serious competition for a place in the line-up at second row for the finals.
IRFU Performance Director David Nucifora commented: "Iain has developed into an important leader within both the Ireland and Ulster environments and we are delighted to have ensured that he continues his career in Ireland.
"I have no doubt that he will continue to add positively to both environments in the months and years to come."
