diff --git a/rollout/replicaset.go b/rollout/replicaset.go
index 401e1b579d..e33cfe14b0 100644
--- a/rollout/replicaset.go
+++ b/rollout/replicaset.go
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ func (c *rolloutContext) removeScaleDownDelay(rs *appsv1.ReplicaSet) error {
 		return nil
 	}
 	patch := fmt.Sprintf(removeScaleDownAtAnnotationsPatch, v1alpha1.DefaultReplicaSetScaleDownDeadlineAnnotationKey)
-	_, err := c.kubeclientset.AppsV1().ReplicaSets(rs.Namespace).Patch(ctx, rs.Name, patchtypes.JSONPatchType, []byte(patch), metav1.PatchOptions{})
+	rs, err := c.kubeclientset.AppsV1().ReplicaSets(rs.Namespace).Patch(ctx, rs.Name, patchtypes.JSONPatchType, []byte(patch), metav1.PatchOptions{})
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("error removing scale-down-deadline annotation from RS '%s': %w", rs.Name, err)
 	}