diff --git a/pkg/agent/run.go b/pkg/agent/run.go
index 3f99c87675..dacdf08f5c 100644
--- a/pkg/agent/run.go
+++ b/pkg/agent/run.go
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ func run(ctx context.Context, cfg cmds.Agent, proxy proxy.Proxy) error {
 	if !nodeConfig.NoFlannel {
 		if (nodeConfig.FlannelExternalIP) && (len(nodeConfig.AgentConfig.NodeExternalIPs) == 0) {
 			logrus.Warnf("Server has flannel-external-ip flag set but this node does not set node-external-ip. Flannel will use internal address when connecting to this node.")
-		} else if (nodeConfig.FlannelBackend != types.FlannelBackendWireguardNative) && (nodeConfig.FlannelBackend != types.FlannelBackendIPSEC) {
+		} else if (nodeConfig.FlannelExternalIP) && (nodeConfig.FlannelBackend != types.FlannelBackendWireguardNative) && (nodeConfig.FlannelBackend != types.FlannelBackendIPSEC) {
 			logrus.Warnf("Flannel is using external addresses with an insecure backend: %v. Please consider using an encrypting flannel backend.", nodeConfig.FlannelBackend)
 		}
 		if err := flannel.Prepare(ctx, nodeConfig); err != nil {