diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 5389147370..5b22308f15 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 Changes with Apache 2.3.0
   [Remove entries to the current 2.0 and 2.2 section below, when backported]
 
+  *) mod_proxy: Forward proxy requests created by mod_rewrite to the correct
+     backend server. PR 39253. [Ruediger Pluem]
+
   *) Default handler: Don't return output filter apr_status_t values.
      PR 31759.  [Jeff Trawick, Ruediger Pluem, Joe Orton]
 
diff --git a/modules/proxy/proxy_util.c b/modules/proxy/proxy_util.c
index e28687ec25..104b465e68 100644
--- a/modules/proxy/proxy_util.c
+++ b/modules/proxy/proxy_util.c
@@ -1870,11 +1870,11 @@ ap_proxy_determine_connection(apr_pool_t *p, request_rec *r,
             conn->hostname = apr_pstrdup(conn->pool, uri->hostname);
             conn->port = uri->port;
         }
+        if (conn->sock) {
+            apr_socket_close(conn->sock);
+            conn->sock = NULL;
+        }
         if (conn->connection) {
-            if (conn->sock) {
-                apr_socket_close(conn->sock);
-                conn->sock = NULL;
-            }
             apr_pool_cleanup_kill(conn->connection->pool, conn, connection_cleanup);
             conn->connection = NULL;
         }