scikit-learn
diff --git a/‎doc/whats_new/v1.3.rst
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+1-1Lines changed: 1 addition & 1 deletion b/‎doc/whats_new/v1.3.rst
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diff --git a/‎sklearn/utils/validation.py
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+2-6Lines changed: 2 additions & 6 deletions b/‎sklearn/utils/validation.py
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+2-6Lines changed: 2 additions & 6 deletions
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ Changelog
   :user:`Jérémie du Boisberranger <jeremiedbb>`.
 
 - |FIX| Fixes :func:`utils.validation.check_array` to properly convert pandas
-  extension arrays. :pr:`25813` by `Thomas Fan`_.
+  extension arrays. :pr:`25813` and :pr:`26106` by `Thomas Fan`_.
 
 - |Fix| :func:`utils.validation.check_array` now suports pandas DataFrames with
   extension arrays and object dtypes by return an ndarray with object dtype.
 
@@ -628,12 +628,8 @@ def _pandas_dtype_needs_early_conversion(pd_dtype):
 
 
 def _is_extension_array_dtype(array):
-    try:
-        from pandas.api.types import is_extension_array_dtype
-
-        return is_extension_array_dtype(array)
-    except ImportError:
-        return False
+    # Pandas extension arrays have a dtype with an na_value
+    return hasattr(array, "dtype") and hasattr(array.dtype, "na_value")
 
 
 def check_array(