diff --git a/pandas/compat/pickle_compat.py b/pandas/compat/pickle_compat.py
index 4f067d958b799..cd98087c06c18 100644
--- a/pandas/compat/pickle_compat.py
+++ b/pandas/compat/pickle_compat.py
@@ -65,6 +65,12 @@ def load_reduce(self) -> None:
     ("pandas.core.sparse.array", "SparseArray"): ("pandas.core.arrays", "SparseArray"),
     # 15477
     ("pandas.core.base", "FrozenNDArray"): ("numpy", "ndarray"),
+    # Re-routing unpickle block logic to go through _unpickle_block instead
+    # for pandas <= 1.3.5
+    ("pandas.core.internals.blocks", "new_block"): (
+        "pandas._libs.internals",
+        "_unpickle_block",
+    ),
     ("pandas.core.indexes.frozen", "FrozenNDArray"): ("numpy", "ndarray"),
     ("pandas.core.base", "FrozenList"): ("pandas.core.indexes.frozen", "FrozenList"),
     # 10890
diff --git a/pandas/core/internals/blocks.py b/pandas/core/internals/blocks.py
index 1a05dc1258266..e5f7272ea5c39 100644
--- a/pandas/core/internals/blocks.py
+++ b/pandas/core/internals/blocks.py
@@ -2612,10 +2612,6 @@ def new_block(
     # - maybe_coerce_values already called/unnecessary
     klass = get_block_type(values.dtype)
 
-    # Old pandas (<=1.3.0) will call this function with placements
-    # that aren't necessarily BlockPlacements when unpickling
-    if not isinstance(placement, BlockPlacement):
-        placement = BlockPlacement(placement)
     return klass(values, ndim=ndim, placement=placement, refs=refs)