diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c
index 6f77a46c7e2c..bcd8a3414722 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/stmmac_main.c
@@ -1894,7 +1894,10 @@ static netdev_tx_t stmmac_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev)
 	unsigned int nopaged_len = skb_headlen(skb);
 	unsigned int enh_desc = priv->plat->enh_desc;
 
+	spin_lock(&priv->tx_lock);
+
 	if (unlikely(stmmac_tx_avail(priv) < nfrags + 1)) {
+		spin_unlock(&priv->tx_lock);
 		if (!netif_queue_stopped(dev)) {
 			netif_stop_queue(dev);
 			/* This is a hard error, log it. */
@@ -1903,8 +1906,6 @@ static netdev_tx_t stmmac_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *dev)
 		return NETDEV_TX_BUSY;
 	}
 
-	spin_lock(&priv->tx_lock);
-
 	if (priv->tx_path_in_lpi_mode)
 		stmmac_disable_eee_mode(priv);