diff --git a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Slice.pm b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Slice.pm
index a3f3f1c687f484957e600a6e14b81ae72cb3024e..5d32179703b4134b1cd222421de3795c33fadb60 100644
--- a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Slice.pm
+++ b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Slice.pm
@@ -837,7 +837,7 @@ sub project {
     }
 
 
-    my $last_rank = 0;
+    # my $last_rank = 0;
     #construct a projection from the mapping results and return it
     foreach my $coord (@coords) {
       my $coord_start  = $coord->start();