diff --git a/drivers/md/raid5.c b/drivers/md/raid5.c
index befadb41a11f..62b6b3a83abf 100644
--- a/drivers/md/raid5.c
+++ b/drivers/md/raid5.c
@@ -3588,8 +3588,18 @@ static void handle_stripe(struct stripe_head *sh)
 
 finish:
 	/* wait for this device to become unblocked */
-	if (conf->mddev->external && unlikely(s.blocked_rdev))
-		md_wait_for_blocked_rdev(s.blocked_rdev, conf->mddev);
+	if (unlikely(s.blocked_rdev)) {
+		if (conf->mddev->external)
+			md_wait_for_blocked_rdev(s.blocked_rdev,
+						 conf->mddev);
+		else
+			/* Internal metadata will immediately
+			 * be written by raid5d, so we don't
+			 * need to wait here.
+			 */
+			rdev_dec_pending(s.blocked_rdev,
+					 conf->mddev);
+	}
 
 	if (s.handle_bad_blocks)
 		for (i = disks; i--; ) {