diff --git a/pytest_enabler/__init__.py b/pytest_enabler/__init__.py
index bc8f10f..010a214 100644
--- a/pytest_enabler/__init__.py
+++ b/pytest_enabler/__init__.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import shlex
 import sys
 from collections.abc import Container, MutableSequence, Sequence
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, TypeVar, overload
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, TypeVar, cast, overload
 
 import toml
 from jaraco.context import suppress
@@ -84,7 +84,14 @@ def _has_plugin(name: str) -> bool:
     enabled = {key: plugins[key] for key in plugins if _has_plugin(key)}
     for plugin in enabled.values():
         args.extend(shlex.split(plugin.get('addopts', "")))
-    _pytest_cov_check(enabled, early_config, parser, args)
+    _pytest_cov_check(
+        enabled,
+        early_config,
+        # parser is only used when known not to be None
+        # based on `enabled` and `early_config`.
+        cast(Parser, parser),
+        args,
+    )
 
 
 def _remove_deps() -> None:
@@ -111,7 +118,7 @@ def _remove_deps() -> None:
 def _pytest_cov_check(
     plugins: Container[str],
     early_config: Config,
-    parser: Parser | None,
+    parser: Parser,
     args: Sequence[str | os.PathLike[str]],
 ) -> None:  # pragma: nocover
     """
@@ -130,8 +137,6 @@ def _pytest_cov_check(
     _remove_deps()
     # important: parse all known args to ensure pytest-cov can configure
     # itself based on other plugins like pytest-xdist (see #1).
-    if parser is None:
-        raise ValueError("parser cannot be None if cov in plugins")
     parser.parse_known_and_unknown_args(args, early_config.known_args_namespace)
 
     with contextlib.suppress(ImportError):