diff --git a/tokio/src/util/linked_list.rs b/tokio/src/util/linked_list.rs
index 0ed2b616456..d3b97c54749 100644
--- a/tokio/src/util/linked_list.rs
+++ b/tokio/src/util/linked_list.rs
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ pub(crate) unsafe trait Link {
 }
 
 /// Previous / next pointers.
+#[repr(transparent)]
 pub(crate) struct Pointers<T> {
     inner: UnsafeCell<PointersInner<T>>,
 }
@@ -78,15 +79,14 @@ pub(crate) struct Pointers<T> {
 /// Additionally, we never access the `prev` or `next` fields directly, as any
 /// such access would implicitly involve the creation of a reference to the
 /// field, which we want to avoid since the fields are not `!Unpin`, and would
-/// hence be given the `noalias` attribute if we were to do such an access.
-/// As an alternative to accessing the fields directly, the `Pointers` type
+/// hence be given the `noalias` attribute if we were to do such an access. As
+/// an alternative to accessing the fields directly, the `Pointers` type
 /// provides getters and setters for the two fields, and those are implemented
-/// using raw pointer casts and offsets, which is valid since the struct is
-/// #[repr(C)].
+/// using `ptr`-specific methods which avoids the creation of intermediate
+/// references.
 ///
 /// See this link for more information:
 /// <https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/82834>
-#[repr(C)]
 struct PointersInner<T> {
     /// The previous node in the list. null if there is no previous node.
     ///
@@ -418,38 +418,28 @@ impl<T> Pointers<T> {
     }
 
     pub(crate) fn get_prev(&self) -> Option<NonNull<T>> {
-        // SAFETY: prev is the first field in PointersInner, which is #[repr(C)].
+        // SAFETY: Field is accessed immutably from a reference.
         unsafe {
-            let inner = self.inner.get();
-            let prev = inner as *const Option<NonNull<T>>;
-            ptr::read(prev)
+            ptr::addr_of!((*self.inner.get()).prev).read()
         }
     }
     pub(crate) fn get_next(&self) -> Option<NonNull<T>> {
-        // SAFETY: next is the second field in PointersInner, which is #[repr(C)].
+        // SAFETY: Field is accessed immutably from a reference.
         unsafe {
-            let inner = self.inner.get();
-            let prev = inner as *const Option<NonNull<T>>;
-            let next = prev.add(1);
-            ptr::read(next)
+            ptr::addr_of!((*self.inner.get()).next).read()
         }
     }
 
     fn set_prev(&mut self, value: Option<NonNull<T>>) {
-        // SAFETY: prev is the first field in PointersInner, which is #[repr(C)].
+        // SAFETY: Field is accessed mutably from a mutable reference.
         unsafe {
-            let inner = self.inner.get();
-            let prev = inner as *mut Option<NonNull<T>>;
-            ptr::write(prev, value);
+            ptr::addr_of_mut!((*self.inner.get()).prev).write(value);
         }
     }
     fn set_next(&mut self, value: Option<NonNull<T>>) {
-        // SAFETY: next is the second field in PointersInner, which is #[repr(C)].
+        // SAFETY: Field is accessed mutably from a mutable reference.
         unsafe {
-            let inner = self.inner.get();
-            let prev = inner as *mut Option<NonNull<T>>;
-            let next = prev.add(1);
-            ptr::write(next, value);
+            ptr::addr_of_mut!((*self.inner.get()).next).write(value);
         }
     }
 }