diff --git a/net/ipv4/tcp.c b/net/ipv4/tcp.c
index d3456cf840de..3d3a24f79573 100644
--- a/net/ipv4/tcp.c
+++ b/net/ipv4/tcp.c
@@ -927,10 +927,11 @@ int tcp_send_mss(struct sock *sk, int *size_goal, int flags)
 	return mss_now;
 }
 
-/* In some cases, both sendmsg() could have added an skb to the write queue,
- * but failed adding payload on it.  We need to remove it to consume less
+/* In some cases, sendmsg() could have added an skb to the write queue,
+ * but failed adding payload on it. We need to remove it to consume less
  * memory, but more importantly be able to generate EPOLLOUT for Edge Trigger
- * epoll() users.
+ * epoll() users. Another reason is that tcp_write_xmit() does not like
+ * finding an empty skb in the write queue.
  */
 void tcp_remove_empty_skb(struct sock *sk)
 {
@@ -1289,6 +1290,7 @@ new_segment:
 
 wait_for_space:
 		set_bit(SOCK_NOSPACE, &sk->sk_socket->flags);
+		tcp_remove_empty_skb(sk);
 		if (copied)
 			tcp_push(sk, flags & ~MSG_MORE, mss_now,
 				 TCP_NAGLE_PUSH, size_goal);