diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 6c1ce6c9466..5b993553a1a 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -108,6 +108,9 @@ Upgrading from Solr 4.x
 * AdminHandlers is deprecated , /admin/* are implicitly defined, /get ,/replacation and
    handlers are also implicitly registered (refer to SOLR-6792)
 
+* SolrCore.reload(ConfigSet coreConfig, SolrCore prev) was deprecated in 4.10.3 and
+  removed in 5.0. use SolrCore.reload(ConfigSet coreConfig). See SOLR-5864.
+
 Detailed Change List
 ----------------------
 
@@ -426,10 +429,13 @@ Other Changes
 * SOLR-6751: Exceptions thrown in the analysis chain in DirectUpdateHandler2
   should return a BAD_REQUEST status (Alan Woodward)
 
-* SOLR-SOLR-6792 : deprecate AdminHandlers, Clean up solrconfig.xml of
+* SOLR-6792 : deprecate AdminHandlers, Clean up solrconfig.xml of
   unnecessary plugin definitions, implicit registration of /replication,
   /get and /admin/* handlers (Noble Paul)
 
+* SOLR-5864: Remove previous SolrCore as parameter on reload.
+  (Tomás Fernández Löbbe) 
+
 ==================  4.10.3 ==================
 
 Bug Fixes
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
index 4a554049419..9db6b2faea5 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/CoreContainer.java
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
-import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Locale;
@@ -602,7 +601,7 @@ public class CoreContainer {
       solrCores.waitAddPendingCoreOps(name);
       ConfigSet coreConfig = coreConfigService.getConfig(cd);
       log.info("Reloading SolrCore '{}' using configuration from {}", cd.getName(), coreConfig.getName());
-      SolrCore newCore = core.reload(coreConfig, core);
+      SolrCore newCore = core.reload(coreConfig);
       registerCore(name, newCore, false);
     }
     catch (Exception e) {
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
index 8819dc262f9..940a50b6c4a 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/core/SolrCore.java
@@ -423,18 +423,21 @@ public final class SolrCore implements SolrInfoMBean, Closeable {
     return responseWriters.put(name, responseWriter);
   }
 
-  public SolrCore reload(ConfigSet coreConfig, SolrCore prev) throws IOException,
+  public SolrCore reload(ConfigSet coreConfig) throws IOException,
       ParserConfigurationException, SAXException {
     
     solrCoreState.increfSolrCoreState();
+    SolrCore currentCore;
     boolean indexDirChange = !getNewIndexDir().equals(getIndexDir());
     if (indexDirChange || !coreConfig.getSolrConfig().nrtMode) {
       // the directory is changing, don't pass on state
-      prev = null;
+      currentCore = null;
+    } else {
+      currentCore = this;
     }
     
     SolrCore core = new SolrCore(getName(), getDataDir(), coreConfig.getSolrConfig(),
-        coreConfig.getIndexSchema(), coreDescriptor, updateHandler, this.solrDelPolicy, prev);
+        coreConfig.getIndexSchema(), coreDescriptor, updateHandler, this.solrDelPolicy, currentCore);
     core.solrDelPolicy = this.solrDelPolicy;