diff --git a/vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/nixl_connector.py b/vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/nixl_connector.py
index 5af2b33f029c..c11189d7ec10 100644
--- a/vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/nixl_connector.py
+++ b/vllm/distributed/kv_transfer/kv_connector/v1/nixl_connector.py
@@ -474,8 +474,11 @@ class NixlConnectorWorker:
                 "backends", ["UCX"])
         # Agent.
         non_ucx_backends = [b for b in self.nixl_backends if b != "UCX"]
-        config = nixl_agent_config(backends=self.nixl_backends) if len(
-            non_ucx_backends) > 0 and nixl_agent_config is not None else None
+        if nixl_agent_config is None:
+            config = None
+        else:
+            config = nixl_agent_config(backends=self.nixl_backends) if len(
+                non_ucx_backends) > 0 else nixl_agent_config(num_threads=8)
 
         self.nixl_wrapper = NixlWrapper(str(uuid.uuid4()), config)
         # Map of engine_id -> {rank0: agent_name0, rank1: agent_name1..}.
diff --git a/vllm/v1/core/sched/scheduler.py b/vllm/v1/core/sched/scheduler.py
index 7fc4776b0261..2b2cd63c2e20 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/core/sched/scheduler.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/core/sched/scheduler.py
@@ -1288,4 +1288,9 @@ class Scheduler(SchedulerInterface):
             self.finished_recving_kv_req_ids.add(req_id)
         for req_id in (kv_connector_output.finished_sending or ()):
             logger.debug("Finished sending KV transfer for request %s", req_id)
-            self._free_blocks(self.requests[req_id])
+            if req_id not in self.requests:
+                logger.warning(
+                    "Got finished sending KV transfer for request %s,"
+                    "but the request is already freed.", req_id)
+            else:
+                self._free_blocks(self.requests[req_id])