diff --git a/net/mptcp/protocol.h b/net/mptcp/protocol.h
index 70ed698bd206..db56535dfc29 100644
--- a/net/mptcp/protocol.h
+++ b/net/mptcp/protocol.h
@@ -232,10 +232,7 @@ static inline struct mptcp_data_frag *mptcp_rtx_head(const struct sock *sk)
 {
 	struct mptcp_sock *msk = mptcp_sk(sk);
 
-	if (list_empty(&msk->rtx_queue))
-		return NULL;
-
-	return list_first_entry(&msk->rtx_queue, struct mptcp_data_frag, list);
+	return list_first_entry_or_null(&msk->rtx_queue, struct mptcp_data_frag, list);
 }
 
 struct mptcp_subflow_request_sock {