diff --git a/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/msq/exec/ControllerImpl.java b/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/msq/exec/ControllerImpl.java
index 1d978c12bfb4..e123b3013f3c 100644
--- a/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/msq/exec/ControllerImpl.java
+++ b/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/msq/exec/ControllerImpl.java
@@ -1330,7 +1330,7 @@ private void publishAllSegments(final Set<DataSegment> segments) throws IOExcept
     final DataSourceMSQDestination destination =
         (DataSourceMSQDestination) task.getQuerySpec().getDestination();
     final Set<DataSegment> segmentsWithTombstones = new HashSet<>(segments);
-    int tombstoneSize = 0;
+    int numTombstones = 0;
 
     if (destination.isReplaceTimeChunks()) {
       final List<Interval> intervalsToDrop = findIntervalsToDrop(Preconditions.checkNotNull(segments, "segments"));
@@ -1345,7 +1345,7 @@ private void publishAllSegments(final Set<DataSegment> segments) throws IOExcept
               destination.getSegmentGranularity()
           );
           segmentsWithTombstones.addAll(tombstones);
-          tombstoneSize = tombstones.size();
+          numTombstones = tombstones.size();
         }
         catch (IllegalStateException e) {
           throw new MSQException(e, InsertLockPreemptedFault.instance());
@@ -1392,7 +1392,7 @@ private void publishAllSegments(final Set<DataSegment> segments) throws IOExcept
       );
     }
 
-    task.emitMetric(context.emitter(), "ingest/tombstones/count", tombstoneSize);
+    task.emitMetric(context.emitter(), "ingest/tombstones/count", numTombstones);
     // Include tombstones in the reported segments count
     task.emitMetric(context.emitter(), "ingest/segments/count", segmentsWithTombstones.size());
   }
diff --git a/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/msq/test/MSQTestControllerContext.java b/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/msq/test/MSQTestControllerContext.java
index 30b9f0c8590e..027d2a913b21 100644
--- a/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/msq/test/MSQTestControllerContext.java
+++ b/extensions-core/multi-stage-query/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/msq/test/MSQTestControllerContext.java
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@
 import org.apache.druid.msq.util.MultiStageQueryContext;
 import org.apache.druid.query.QueryContext;
 import org.apache.druid.server.DruidNode;
+import org.apache.druid.server.metrics.NoopServiceEmitter;
 import org.apache.druid.sql.calcite.util.SpecificSegmentsQuerySegmentWalker;
 import org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers;
 import org.mockito.Mockito;
@@ -83,6 +84,7 @@ public class MSQTestControllerContext implements ControllerContext
   );
   private final Injector injector;
   private final ObjectMapper mapper;
+  private final ServiceEmitter emitter = new NoopServiceEmitter();
 
   private Controller controller;
   private Map<String, TaskReport> report = null;
@@ -219,7 +221,7 @@ public void close()
   @Override
   public ServiceEmitter emitter()
   {
-    return null;
+    return emitter;
   }
 
   @Override