diff --git a/pkg/middlewares/auth/forward.go b/pkg/middlewares/auth/forward.go
index 92f8b95ff..708ea85dc 100644
--- a/pkg/middlewares/auth/forward.go
+++ b/pkg/middlewares/auth/forward.go
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ func (fa *forwardAuth) ServeHTTP(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
 		rw.WriteHeader(http.StatusInternalServerError)
 		return
 	}
+	defer forwardResponse.Body.Close()
 
 	body, readError := io.ReadAll(forwardResponse.Body)
 	if readError != nil {
@@ -136,7 +137,6 @@ func (fa *forwardAuth) ServeHTTP(rw http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
 		rw.WriteHeader(http.StatusInternalServerError)
 		return
 	}
-	defer forwardResponse.Body.Close()
 
 	// Pass the forward response's body and selected headers if it
 	// didn't return a response within the range of [200, 300).