diff --git a/mm/slab.c b/mm/slab.c
index b67271024135..dc69b6b625b1 100644
--- a/mm/slab.c
+++ b/mm/slab.c
@@ -550,12 +550,7 @@ static void start_cpu_timer(int cpu)
 {
 	struct delayed_work *reap_work = &per_cpu(slab_reap_work, cpu);
 
-	/*
-	 * When this gets called from do_initcalls via cpucache_init(),
-	 * init_workqueues() has already run, so keventd will be setup
-	 * at that time.
-	 */
-	if (keventd_up() && reap_work->work.func == NULL) {
+	if (reap_work->work.func == NULL) {
 		init_reap_node(cpu);
 		INIT_DEFERRABLE_WORK(reap_work, cache_reap);
 		schedule_delayed_work_on(cpu, reap_work,