diff --git a/libavcodec/mlpenc.c b/libavcodec/mlpenc.c
index 6d4a12ce3b..ef01c1d282 100644
--- a/libavcodec/mlpenc.c
+++ b/libavcodec/mlpenc.c
@@ -476,6 +476,7 @@ static av_cold int mlp_encode_init(AVCodecContext *avctx)
 {
     static AVOnce init_static_once = AV_ONCE_INIT;
     MLPEncodeContext *ctx = avctx->priv_data;
+    RestartHeader *const rh = &ctx->restart_header;
     unsigned int sum = 0;
     size_t size;
     int ret;
@@ -674,8 +675,6 @@ static av_cold int mlp_encode_init(AVCodecContext *avctx)
     if (!ctx->decoding_params)
         return AVERROR(ENOMEM);
 
-    RestartHeader  *rh = &ctx->restart_header;
-
     /* TODO see if noisegen_seed is really worth it. */
     rh->noisegen_seed      = 0;