diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/iavf/iavf_txrx.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/iavf/iavf_txrx.c
index 7bf8c25dc824..06d18797d25a 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/iavf/iavf_txrx.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/iavf/iavf_txrx.c
@@ -1285,11 +1285,10 @@ static struct iavf_rx_buffer *iavf_get_rx_buffer(struct iavf_ring *rx_ring,
 {
 	struct iavf_rx_buffer *rx_buffer;
 
-	if (!size)
-		return NULL;
-
 	rx_buffer = &rx_ring->rx_bi[rx_ring->next_to_clean];
 	prefetchw(rx_buffer->page);
+	if (!size)
+		return rx_buffer;
 
 	/* we are reusing so sync this buffer for CPU use */
 	dma_sync_single_range_for_cpu(rx_ring->dev,