diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_lib.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_lib.sh
index 5ef6033775c8..da1da414c30f 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_lib.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_lib.sh
@@ -108,12 +108,14 @@ mptcp_lib_pr_info() {
 
 mptcp_lib_pr_nstat() {
 	local ns="${1}"
-	local hist="/tmp/${ns}.out"
+	local cache="/tmp/${ns}.out"
+	local hist="/tmp/${ns}.nstat"
 
-	if [ -f "${hist}" ]; then
-		awk '$2 != 0 { print "  "$0 }' "${hist}"
+	if [ -f "${cache}" ]; then
+		awk '$2 != 0 { print "  "$0 }' "${cache}"
 	else
-		ip netns exec "${ns}" nstat -as | grep Tcp
+		NSTAT_HISTORY="${hist}" ip netns exec "${ns}" nstat -s |
+			grep Tcp
 	fi
 }