diff --git a/io_uring/io_uring.c b/io_uring/io_uring.c
index 8bd5db2056eee61d922ec309c864419414aaef8d..8078d69444111c0e7e5371e72371bf8eb70e933e 100644
--- a/io_uring/io_uring.c
+++ b/io_uring/io_uring.c
@@ -929,6 +929,13 @@ static void io_req_complete_post(struct io_kiocb *req, unsigned issue_flags)
 {
 	struct io_ring_ctx *ctx = req->ctx;
 
+	/*
+	 * All execution paths but io-wq use the deferred completions by
+	 * passing IO_URING_F_COMPLETE_DEFER and thus should not end up here.
+	 */
+	if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!(issue_flags & IO_URING_F_IOWQ)))
+		return;
+
 	/*
 	 * Handle special CQ sync cases via task_work. DEFER_TASKRUN requires
 	 * the submitter task context, IOPOLL protects with uring_lock.
@@ -946,7 +953,10 @@ static void io_req_complete_post(struct io_kiocb *req, unsigned issue_flags)
 	}
 	io_cq_unlock_post(ctx);
 
-	/* called from io-wq submit work only, the ref won't drop to zero */
+	/*
+	 * We don't free the request here because we know it's called from
+	 * io-wq only, which holds a reference, so it cannot be the last put.
+	 */
 	req_ref_put(req);
 }