diff --git a/drivers/md/raid5.c b/drivers/md/raid5.c
index f920e50ea124..837ec4eb3d60 100644
--- a/drivers/md/raid5.c
+++ b/drivers/md/raid5.c
@@ -2827,7 +2827,6 @@ static inline sector_t sync_request(mddev_t *mddev, sector_t sector_nr, int *ski
 	struct stripe_head *sh;
 	int pd_idx;
 	int raid_disks = conf->raid_disks;
-	int data_disks = raid_disks - conf->max_degraded;
 	sector_t max_sector = mddev->size << 1;
 	int sync_blocks;
 	int still_degraded = 0;