diff --git a/net/sunrpc/clnt.c b/net/sunrpc/clnt.c
index 75078bbf261a2bfef1a6e9966b357630d31a78f5..4bb526f57a091805a92f4567955fd98b706af77d 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/clnt.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/clnt.c
@@ -987,7 +987,6 @@ void rpc_task_set_client(struct rpc_task *task, struct rpc_clnt *clnt)
 {
 
 	if (clnt != NULL) {
-		rpc_task_release_client(task);
 		if (task->tk_xprt == NULL)
 			task->tk_xprt = xprt_iter_get_next(&clnt->cl_xpi);
 		task->tk_client = clnt;