diff --git a/mm/kfence/core.c b/mm/kfence/core.c
index 6aff49f6b79e..4b5e5a3d3a63 100644
--- a/mm/kfence/core.c
+++ b/mm/kfence/core.c
@@ -603,6 +603,14 @@ static unsigned long kfence_init_pool(void)
 		addr += 2 * PAGE_SIZE;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * The pool is live and will never be deallocated from this point on.
+	 * Remove the pool object from the kmemleak object tree, as it would
+	 * otherwise overlap with allocations returned by kfence_alloc(), which
+	 * are registered with kmemleak through the slab post-alloc hook.
+	 */
+	kmemleak_free(__kfence_pool);
+
 	return 0;
 }
 
@@ -615,16 +623,8 @@ static bool __init kfence_init_pool_early(void)
 
 	addr = kfence_init_pool();
 
-	if (!addr) {
-		/*
-		 * The pool is live and will never be deallocated from this point on.
-		 * Ignore the pool object from the kmemleak phys object tree, as it would
-		 * otherwise overlap with allocations returned by kfence_alloc(), which
-		 * are registered with kmemleak through the slab post-alloc hook.
-		 */
-		kmemleak_ignore_phys(__pa(__kfence_pool));
+	if (!addr)
 		return true;
-	}
 
 	/*
 	 * Only release unprotected pages, and do not try to go back and change