diff --git a/drivers/virtio/virtio_balloon.c b/drivers/virtio/virtio_balloon.c
index 3db3d242c3ee..369f2eebbad1 100644
--- a/drivers/virtio/virtio_balloon.c
+++ b/drivers/virtio/virtio_balloon.c
@@ -292,6 +292,7 @@ static int virtballoon_probe(struct virtio_device *vdev)
 	vb->num_pages = 0;
 	init_waitqueue_head(&vb->config_change);
 	vb->vdev = vdev;
+	vb->need_stats_update = 0;
 
 	/* We expect two virtqueues: inflate and deflate,
 	 * and optionally stat. */