diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/Engine.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/Engine.java
index aebba48a83447..b07132eea75e8 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/Engine.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/Engine.java
@@ -339,10 +339,8 @@ private long getSparseVectorValueCount(final LeafReader atomicReader, List<Bytes
         }
         TermsEnum termsEnum = terms.iterator();
         for (var fieldName : fields) {
-            if (terms != null) {
-                if (termsEnum.seekExact(fieldName)) {
-                    count += termsEnum.docFreq();
-                }
+            if (termsEnum.seekExact(fieldName)) {
+                count += termsEnum.docFreq();
             }
         }
         return count;