diff --git a/net/smc/smc_tx.c b/net/smc/smc_tx.c
index 3144b4b1fe29..495fb1354728 100644
--- a/net/smc/smc_tx.c
+++ b/net/smc/smc_tx.c
@@ -249,6 +249,13 @@ int smc_tx_sendmsg(struct smc_sock *smc, struct msghdr *msg, size_t len)
 			rc = memcpy_from_msg(sndbuf_base + chunk_off,
 					     msg, chunk_len);
 			if (rc) {
+				if (chunk) {
+					/* send_done counts the first chunk:
+					 * queue it and retry the rest
+					 */
+					copylen -= chunk_len;
+					break;
+				}
 				smc_sndbuf_sync_sg_for_device(conn);
 				if (send_done)
 					return send_done;