diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/nvidia/forcedeth.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/nvidia/forcedeth.c
index 2fc10a36afa4..7e85cf943be1 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/nvidia/forcedeth.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/nvidia/forcedeth.c
@@ -1666,11 +1666,7 @@ static void nv_update_stats(struct net_device *dev)
 	struct fe_priv *np = netdev_priv(dev);
 	u8 __iomem *base = get_hwbase(dev);
 
-	/* If it happens that this is run in top-half context, then
-	 * replace the spin_lock of hwstats_lock with
-	 * spin_lock_irqsave() in calling functions. */
-	WARN_ONCE(in_irq(), "forcedeth: estats spin_lock(_bh) from top-half");
-	assert_spin_locked(&np->hwstats_lock);
+	lockdep_assert_held(&np->hwstats_lock);
 
 	/* query hardware */
 	np->estats.tx_bytes += readl(base + NvRegTxCnt);