diff --git a/lib/generic-radix-tree.c b/lib/generic-radix-tree.c
index 7dfa88282b006a408c7a6e77f69c17353b333301..78f081d695d0b79a52a1a49e46f851f3a3686754 100644
--- a/lib/generic-radix-tree.c
+++ b/lib/generic-radix-tree.c
@@ -131,6 +131,8 @@ void *__genradix_ptr_alloc(struct __genradix *radix, size_t offset,
 		if ((v = cmpxchg_release(&radix->root, r, new_root)) == r) {
 			v = new_root;
 			new_node = NULL;
+		} else {
+			new_node->children[0] = NULL;
 		}
 	}