diff --git a/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c b/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c
index 6b2cd922d3221061987688f4d03534e7068d6036..489bfc61cf30001626307f4e2f936d2e65cdeb73 100644
--- a/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c
+++ b/drivers/virtio/virtio_ring.c
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ static bool vring_use_dma_api(struct virtio_device *vdev)
  * making all of the arch DMA ops work on the vring device itself
  * is a mess.  For now, we use the parent device for DMA ops.
  */
-static struct device *vring_dma_dev(const struct vring_virtqueue *vq)
+static inline struct device *vring_dma_dev(const struct vring_virtqueue *vq)
 {
 	return vq->vq.vdev->dev.parent;
 }