diff --git a/src/shrpx_http2_upstream.cc b/src/shrpx_http2_upstream.cc
index 0b9eaa2f..49ad33fa 100644
--- a/src/shrpx_http2_upstream.cc
+++ b/src/shrpx_http2_upstream.cc
@@ -573,7 +573,7 @@ Http2Upstream::Http2Upstream(ClientHandler *handler)
                     : 0,
           !get_config()->http2_proxy),
       handler_(handler), session_(nullptr), data_pending_(nullptr),
-      data_pendinglen_(0), deferred_(false) {
+      data_pendinglen_(0) {
 
   int rv;
 
@@ -1008,12 +1008,6 @@ ssize_t downstream_data_read_callback(nghttp2_session *session,
   }
 
   if (nread == 0 && ((*data_flags) & NGHTTP2_DATA_FLAG_EOF) == 0) {
-    // Higher priority stream is likely to be handled first and if it
-    // has no data to send, we'd better to break here, so that we have
-    // a chance to read another incoming data from backend to this
-    // stream.
-    upstream->set_deferred(true);
-
     return NGHTTP2_ERR_DEFERRED;
   }
 
@@ -1333,8 +1327,6 @@ int Http2Upstream::on_downstream_reset() {
   return 0;
 }
 
-void Http2Upstream::set_deferred(bool f) { deferred_ = f; }
-
 MemchunkPool4K *Http2Upstream::get_mcpool() { return &mcpool_; }
 
 } // namespace shrpx
diff --git a/src/shrpx_http2_upstream.h b/src/shrpx_http2_upstream.h
index 7f534e78..adaf19a3 100644
--- a/src/shrpx_http2_upstream.h
+++ b/src/shrpx_http2_upstream.h
@@ -97,8 +97,6 @@ public:
   void start_downstream(Downstream *downstream);
   void initiate_downstream(std::unique_ptr<Downstream> downstream);
 
-  void set_deferred(bool f);
-
 private:
   // must be put before downstream_queue_
   std::unique_ptr<HttpsUpstream> pre_upstream_;
@@ -110,7 +108,6 @@ private:
   const uint8_t *data_pending_;
   size_t data_pendinglen_;
   bool flow_control_;
-  bool deferred_;
 };
 
 } // namespace shrpx