“Unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR” erreur dans le PHP

J'obtiens l'erreur suivante:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR in.. on line 52.

Ligne 52 est if ($result = mysqli->query.... Si je commente la ligne, la même erreur se produit sur $mysqli->query("INSERT INTO....

Pourquoi est-ce que l'erreur?

$unique_code = "";
$inserted = false;
while(!$inserted) {
    $unique_code = generateCode();
    echo $unique_code;

    //Check if it exists
    if ($result = mysqli->query("SELECT unique_code FROM coming_soon_emails WHERE unique_code = '$unique_code'")) {
        //Check no record exists
        if ($result->num_rows == 0) {
            //Create new record
            $mysqli->query("INSERT INTO coming_soon_emails (email,unique_code) VALUES ('" . $mysqli->real_escape_string($_POST['email']) . "','$unique_code')");
            //Set inserted to true to ext loop
            $inserted = true;
            //Close the result object
            $result->close();
        }
    } else {
        //Quit if we can't check the database
        die('Something went wrong with select');
    }   
}