diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5217f6110f7d..fd775de80bb3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 ### Changed (changing behavior/API/variables/...)
 
 ### Fixed (not changing behavior/API/variables/...)
+- [[PR978]](https://github.com/parthenon-hpc-lab/parthenon/pull/978) remove erroneous sparse check
 
 ### Infrastructure (changes irrelevant to downstream codes)
 
diff --git a/src/bvals/comms/bnd_info.cpp b/src/bvals/comms/bnd_info.cpp
index ce71b0f98953..3eaeb16091e9 100644
--- a/src/bvals/comms/bnd_info.cpp
+++ b/src/bvals/comms/bnd_info.cpp
@@ -261,7 +261,6 @@ BndInfo BndInfo::GetSetBndInfo(MeshBlock *pmb, const NeighborBlock &nb,
   auto buf_state = buf->GetState();
   if (buf_state == BufferState::received) {
     out.buf_allocated = true;
-    PARTHENON_DEBUG_REQUIRE(v->IsAllocated(), "Variable must be allocated to receive");
   } else if (buf_state == BufferState::received_null) {
     out.buf_allocated = false;
   } else {