Ireland forwards coach Simon Easterby believes the suspended Bundee Aki can still have a 'massive' influence on their preparations for Saturday's Rugby World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand.
The Connacht centre has been hit with a three-week ban following his red card in last weekend's victory against Samoa and the IRFU are still deciding whether to appeal.
Easterby says Aki is continuing to train with the squad and is providing insider information on the nation of his birth:
"It can be massive that he's still able to train, he's a good trainer anyway, but he'll be focused on doing everything he can now.
"There's no better man for knowing how the Kiwis work and how they might be approaching this. He's a big part of this group and he'll continue to be part of it no matter the outcome."
He added that they'll only make a final decision on an appeal on receipt of the full findings of the disciplinary hearing's report:
"Until we've seen the report we don't know what rolls into that decision. He's nowhere near a dirty player
"We're disappointed because Bundee is a big part of the squad, so we're disappointed for him."
"He's nowhere near a dirty player. He was sanctioned on the day, and we lost him for a large chunk of the game.
"We're lucky that we have a real good group of players in that midfield, but he's one of those and we'd be disappointed if we don't get to use him.
"He was really upset about the decision and rightfully so. But until we've seen the report and know exactly how they came to that decision, we'll probably have to wait until we see that before we make a call."
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