diff --git a/.github/workflows/downstream.yml b/.github/workflows/downstream.yml
index 9e1049cbb..99d409e4c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/downstream.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/downstream.yml
@@ -76,7 +76,6 @@ jobs:
           git clone https://github.com/jupyter/jupyter_kernel_test.git
           cd jupyter_kernel_test
           conda env update --name jupyter_kernel_test --file environment.yml
-          conda install -c conda-forge xeus-cling
           pip install -e ".[test]"
           python -m unittest -v
 
diff --git a/jupyter_client/ioloop/restarter.py b/jupyter_client/ioloop/restarter.py
index 54f96af8d..e36f3a33d 100644
--- a/jupyter_client/ioloop/restarter.py
+++ b/jupyter_client/ioloop/restarter.py
@@ -5,15 +5,12 @@
 """
 # Copyright (c) Jupyter Development Team.
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
-import asyncio
 import time
 import warnings
 
 from traitlets import Instance
-from zmq.eventloop import ioloop
 
 from jupyter_client.restarter import KernelRestarter
-from jupyter_client.utils import run_sync
 
 
 class IOLoopKernelRestarter(KernelRestarter):
@@ -27,6 +24,8 @@ def _loop_default(self):
             DeprecationWarning,
             stacklevel=4,
         )
+        from zmq.eventloop import ioloop
+
         return ioloop.IOLoop.current()
 
     _pcallback = None
@@ -34,12 +33,10 @@ def _loop_default(self):
     def start(self):
         """Start the polling of the kernel."""
         if self._pcallback is None:
-            if asyncio.iscoroutinefunction(self.poll):
-                cb = run_sync(self.poll)
-            else:
-                cb = self.poll
-            self._pcallback = ioloop.PeriodicCallback(
-                cb,
+            from tornado.ioloop import PeriodicCallback
+
+            self._pcallback = PeriodicCallback(
+                self.poll,
                 1000 * self.time_to_dead,
             )
             self._pcallback.start()
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f7a2712b3..8e370723b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "nest-asyncio>=1.5.4",
     "python-dateutil>=2.8.2",
     "pyzmq>=23.0",
-    "tornado>=6.0",
+    "tornado>=6.2",
     "traitlets",
 ]