diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
index c290a1cf3862..c5792a5d87ce 100644
--- a/mm/memcontrol.c
+++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
@@ -3195,11 +3195,11 @@ int memcg_register_cache(struct mem_cgroup *memcg, struct kmem_cache *s,
 	if (!s->memcg_params)
 		return -ENOMEM;
 
-	INIT_WORK(&s->memcg_params->destroy,
-			kmem_cache_destroy_work_func);
 	if (memcg) {
 		s->memcg_params->memcg = memcg;
 		s->memcg_params->root_cache = root_cache;
+		INIT_WORK(&s->memcg_params->destroy,
+				kmem_cache_destroy_work_func);
 	} else
 		s->memcg_params->is_root_cache = true;