diff --git a/synapse/handlers/message.py b/synapse/handlers/message.py
index 0f26b9186..23502eda7 100644
--- a/synapse/handlers/message.py
+++ b/synapse/handlers/message.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ from synapse.types import (
     UserID, RoomAlias, RoomStreamToken,
 )
 from synapse.util.async import run_on_reactor, ReadWriteLock, Limiter
-from synapse.util.logcontext import preserve_fn, run_in_background
+from synapse.util.logcontext import run_in_background
 from synapse.util.metrics import measure_func
 from synapse.util.frozenutils import frozendict_json_encoder
 from synapse.util.stringutils import random_string