diff --git a/gcc/fortran/trans-array.c b/gcc/fortran/trans-array.c
index 54e1107c71193e12421d0a6731aa8164ef807a73..8f93b43bafbeac3618b2e2d7eceecfd90d82e027 100644
--- a/gcc/fortran/trans-array.c
+++ b/gcc/fortran/trans-array.c
@@ -10800,7 +10800,8 @@ gfc_walk_array_ref (gfc_ss * ss, gfc_expr * expr, gfc_ref * ref)
       if (ref->type == REF_SUBSTRING)
 	{
 	  ss = gfc_get_scalar_ss (ss, ref->u.ss.start);
-	  ss = gfc_get_scalar_ss (ss, ref->u.ss.end);
+	  if (ref->u.ss.end)
+	    ss = gfc_get_scalar_ss (ss, ref->u.ss.end);
 	}
 
       /* We're only interested in array sections from now on.  */
diff --git a/gcc/testsuite/gfortran.dg/pr53298.f90 b/gcc/testsuite/gfortran.dg/pr53298.f90
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..998f88df926bd0f0727140174f841aae15c2961e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gcc/testsuite/gfortran.dg/pr53298.f90
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+! { dg-do run }
+
+program test
+  character(len=5) :: str(3)
+  str = ["abcde", "12345", "ABCDE" ]
+  call f(str(:))
+contains
+  subroutine f(x)
+    character(len=*) :: x(:)
+    write(*,*) x(:)(1:) 
+  end subroutine f
+end program test
+
+! { dg-output "abcde12345ABCDE" }