diff --git a/drivers/lightnvm/pblk-init.c b/drivers/lightnvm/pblk-init.c
index e0df3de1ce83..1e227a08e54a 100644
--- a/drivers/lightnvm/pblk-init.c
+++ b/drivers/lightnvm/pblk-init.c
@@ -47,36 +47,10 @@ static struct pblk_global_caches pblk_caches = {
 
 struct bio_set pblk_bio_set;
 
-static int pblk_rw_io(struct request_queue *q, struct pblk *pblk,
-			  struct bio *bio)
-{
-	int ret;
-
-	/* Read requests must be <= 256kb due to NVMe's 64 bit completion bitmap
-	 * constraint. Writes can be of arbitrary size.
-	 */
-	if (bio_data_dir(bio) == READ) {
-		blk_queue_split(q, &bio);
-		ret = pblk_submit_read(pblk, bio);
-		if (ret == NVM_IO_DONE && bio_flagged(bio, BIO_CLONED))
-			bio_put(bio);
-
-		return ret;
-	}
-
-	/* Prevent deadlock in the case of a modest LUN configuration and large
-	 * user I/Os. Unless stalled, the rate limiter leaves at least 256KB
-	 * available for user I/O.
-	 */
-	if (pblk_get_secs(bio) > pblk_rl_max_io(&pblk->rl))
-		blk_queue_split(q, &bio);
-
-	return pblk_write_to_cache(pblk, bio, PBLK_IOTYPE_USER);
-}
-
 static blk_qc_t pblk_make_rq(struct request_queue *q, struct bio *bio)
 {
 	struct pblk *pblk = q->queuedata;
+	int ret;
 
 	if (bio_op(bio) == REQ_OP_DISCARD) {
 		pblk_discard(pblk, bio);
@@ -86,7 +60,24 @@ static blk_qc_t pblk_make_rq(struct request_queue *q, struct bio *bio)
 		}
 	}
 
-	switch (pblk_rw_io(q, pblk, bio)) {
+	/* Read requests must be <= 256kb due to NVMe's 64 bit completion bitmap
+	 * constraint. Writes can be of arbitrary size.
+	 */
+	if (bio_data_dir(bio) == READ) {
+		blk_queue_split(q, &bio);
+		ret = pblk_submit_read(pblk, bio);
+	} else {
+		/* Prevent deadlock in the case of a modest LUN configuration
+		 * and large user I/Os. Unless stalled, the rate limiter
+		 * leaves at least 256KB available for user I/O.
+		 */
+		if (pblk_get_secs(bio) > pblk_rl_max_io(&pblk->rl))
+			blk_queue_split(q, &bio);
+
+		ret = pblk_write_to_cache(pblk, bio, PBLK_IOTYPE_USER);
+	}
+
+	switch (ret) {
 	case NVM_IO_ERR:
 		bio_io_error(bio);
 		break;