diff --git a/io_uring/napi.c b/io_uring/napi.c
index 53d7623e4d23..7e698720cd51 100644
--- a/io_uring/napi.c
+++ b/io_uring/napi.c
@@ -378,6 +378,8 @@ void __io_napi_busy_loop(struct io_ring_ctx *ctx, struct io_wait_queue *iowq)
 	if (iowq->timeout != KTIME_MAX) {
 		ktime_t dt = ktime_sub(iowq->timeout, io_get_time(ctx));
 
+		/* an absolute timeout may have passed already */
+		dt = max_t(ktime_t, dt, 0);
 		iowq->napi_busy_poll_dt = min_t(u64, iowq->napi_busy_poll_dt, dt);
 	}