diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
index eb87fe69612..07b770050f2 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
@@ -74,7 +74,6 @@ func addSwapCheck(checks []Checker) []Checker {
 // addExecChecks adds checks that verify if certain binaries are in PATH
 func addExecChecks(checks []Checker, execer utilsexec.Interface) []Checker {
 	checks = append(checks,
-		InPathCheck{executable: "crictl", mandatory: false, exec: execer},
 		InPathCheck{executable: "conntrack", mandatory: true, exec: execer},
 		InPathCheck{executable: "ip", mandatory: true, exec: execer},
 		InPathCheck{executable: "iptables", mandatory: true, exec: execer},