diff --git a/modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/splitter/JsonSplitter.groovy b/modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/splitter/JsonSplitter.groovy
index 66dcb40b4b..d68b2ed070 100644
--- a/modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/splitter/JsonSplitter.groovy
+++ b/modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/splitter/JsonSplitter.groovy
@@ -219,9 +219,9 @@ class JsonSplitter extends AbstractTextSplitter {
                 break
             }
 
-            final map = Map.of(
-                 OBJECT_KEY, reader.nextName(),
-                 OBJECT_VALUE, fromJson(reader))
+            final map = new LinkedHashMap<>(1)
+            map[OBJECT_KEY] = reader.nextName()
+            map[OBJECT_VALUE] = fromJson(reader)
 
             // -- apply the splitting logic for the fetched record
             result = processChunk( map )