diff --git a/fastembed/late_interaction/colbert.py b/fastembed/late_interaction/colbert.py
index 89b87805..92d74c57 100644
--- a/fastembed/late_interaction/colbert.py
+++ b/fastembed/late_interaction/colbert.py
@@ -175,8 +175,8 @@ def __init__(
         self._model_dir = self.download_model(
             self.model_description, self.cache_dir, local_files_only=self._local_files_only
         )
-        self.mask_token_id = None
-        self.pad_token_id = None
+        self.mask_token_id = int()
+        self.pad_token_id = int()
         self.skip_list = set()
 
         if not self.lazy_load: