diff --git a/dlls/msxml3/schema.c b/dlls/msxml3/schema.c
index e262f2e2ee..fa4208dd99 100644
--- a/dlls/msxml3/schema.c
+++ b/dlls/msxml3/schema.c
@@ -767,7 +767,7 @@ static inline schema_cache* impl_from_IXMLDOMSchemaCollection2(IXMLDOMSchemaColl
 
 static inline SCHEMA_TYPE schema_type_from_xmlDocPtr(xmlDocPtr schema)
 {
-    xmlNodePtr root;
+    xmlNodePtr root = NULL;
     if (schema)
         root = xmlDocGetRootElement(schema);
     if (root && root->ns)