diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 086448c1..865e5e82 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ require (
 	k8s.io/apimachinery v0.36.4
 	k8s.io/client-go v0.36.4
 	k8s.io/klog/v2 v2.140.0
+	k8s.io/utils v0.0.0-20260210185600-b8788abfbbc2
 	sigs.k8s.io/kind v0.33.0
 	sigs.k8s.io/yaml v1.6.0
 )
@@ -147,7 +148,6 @@ require (
 	gopkg.in/evanphx/json-patch.v4 v4.13.0 // indirect
 	gopkg.in/inf.v0 v0.9.1 // indirect
 	k8s.io/kube-openapi v0.0.0-20260317180543-43fb72c5454a // indirect
-	k8s.io/utils v0.0.0-20260210185600-b8788abfbbc2 // indirect
 	sigs.k8s.io/json v0.0.0-20250730193827-2d320260d730 // indirect
 	sigs.k8s.io/randfill v1.0.0 // indirect
 	sigs.k8s.io/structured-merge-diff/v6 v6.3.3 // indirect