diff --git a/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslHandler.java b/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslHandler.java
index bd9abdde4b..c05496466c 100644
--- a/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslHandler.java
+++ b/handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslHandler.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ import io.netty.channel.ChannelPromiseNotifier;
 import io.netty.channel.PendingWriteQueue;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder;
 import io.netty.handler.codec.UnsupportedMessageTypeException;
+import io.netty.util.ReferenceCounted;
 import io.netty.util.concurrent.DefaultPromise;
 import io.netty.util.concurrent.EventExecutor;
 import io.netty.util.concurrent.Future;
@@ -580,8 +581,8 @@ public class SslHandler extends ByteToMessageDecoder implements ChannelOutboundH
             // Check if queue is not empty first because create a new ChannelException is expensive
             pendingUnencryptedWrites.removeAndFailAll(new ChannelException("Pending write on removal of SslHandler"));
         }
-        if (engine instanceof ReferenceCountedOpenSslEngine) {
-            ((ReferenceCountedOpenSslEngine) engine).release();
+        if (engine instanceof ReferenceCounted) {
+            ((ReferenceCounted) engine).release();
         }
     }