diff --git a/src/kvstore/kvstore_nccl.h b/src/kvstore/kvstore_nccl.h
index 95ee8147a153..485cd9556003 100644
--- a/src/kvstore/kvstore_nccl.h
+++ b/src/kvstore/kvstore_nccl.h
@@ -91,7 +91,8 @@ class KVStoreNCCL : public KVStoreLocal {
                 int priority) override {
     std::vector<int> uniq_keys;
     std::vector<std::vector<NDArray> > grouped_vals;
-    GroupKVPairsHelper(keys, values, &uniq_keys, &grouped_vals);
+    // nccl kvstore doesn't support sparse ndarray
+    GroupKVPairsHelper(keys, values, &uniq_keys, &grouped_vals, true);
 
     std::vector<const NDArray*> merged_ptrs;
     std::vector<NDArray*> local_ptrs;
@@ -146,10 +147,11 @@ class KVStoreNCCL : public KVStoreLocal {
 
   void PullImpl(const std::vector<int>& keys,
                 const std::vector<NDArray*>& values,
-                int priority) override {
+                int priority, bool ignore_sparse) override {
+    CHECK(ignore_sparse) << "nccl kvstore pull doesn't support ignore_sparse=False";
     std::vector<int> uniq_keys;
     std::vector<std::vector<NDArray*> > grouped_vals;
-    GroupKVPairsHelper(keys, values, &uniq_keys, &grouped_vals);
+    GroupKVPairsHelper(keys, values, &uniq_keys, &grouped_vals, true);
     std::vector<NDArray> locals;
     bool nccl_called = false;
 
@@ -191,9 +193,11 @@ class KVStoreNCCL : public KVStoreLocal {
   void GroupKVPairsHelper(const std::vector<int>& keys,
                           const std::vector<T>& values,
                           std::vector<int> *uniq_keys,
-                          std::vector<std::vector<T>> *grouped_vals) {
+                          std::vector<std::vector<T>> *grouped_vals,
+                          bool ignore_sparse) {
     // check if the storage type of a value is valid
-    auto validator = [this](const int key, const T nd) -> bool {
+    auto validator = [this](const int key, const T nd, bool ignore_sparse) -> bool {
+      CHECK(ignore_sparse) << "nccl kvstore pull doesn't support ignore_sparse=False";
       auto stype = ptr(nd)->storage_type();
       // valid NDArray
       if (stype == kDefaultStorage) return true;
@@ -201,7 +205,7 @@ class KVStoreNCCL : public KVStoreLocal {
       LOG(FATAL) << "NCCL kvstore does not support sparse storage type";
       return false;
     };
-    GroupKVPairs(keys, values, uniq_keys, grouped_vals, validator);
+    GroupKVPairs(keys, values, uniq_keys, grouped_vals, validator, ignore_sparse);
   }
 
  private: