diff --git a/io_uring/io_uring.c b/io_uring/io_uring.c
index b9640ad5069f..2965b354efc8 100644
--- a/io_uring/io_uring.c
+++ b/io_uring/io_uring.c
@@ -2648,6 +2648,9 @@ static __cold void io_ring_ctx_wait_and_kill(struct io_ring_ctx *ctx)
 		io_kill_timeouts(ctx, NULL, true);
 		/* if we failed setting up the ctx, we might not have any rings */
 		io_iopoll_try_reap_events(ctx);
+		/* drop cached put refs after potentially doing completions */
+		if (current->io_uring)
+			io_uring_drop_tctx_refs(current);
 	}
 
 	INIT_WORK(&ctx->exit_work, io_ring_exit_work);