diff --git a/include/linux/sunrpc/cache.h b/include/linux/sunrpc/cache.h
index 6f52b4d7c447..7bf3e84b92f4 100644
--- a/include/linux/sunrpc/cache.h
+++ b/include/linux/sunrpc/cache.h
@@ -192,6 +192,7 @@ extern int cache_check(struct cache_detail *detail,
 extern void cache_flush(void);
 extern void cache_purge(struct cache_detail *detail);
 #define NEVER (0x7FFFFFFF)
+extern void __init cache_initialize(void);
 extern int cache_register(struct cache_detail *cd);
 extern void cache_unregister(struct cache_detail *cd);
 
diff --git a/net/sunrpc/cache.c b/net/sunrpc/cache.c
index 58de76c8540c..939d048ef92b 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/cache.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/cache.c
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ static struct cache_detail *current_detail;
 static int current_index;
 
 static void do_cache_clean(struct work_struct *work);
-static DECLARE_DELAYED_WORK(cache_cleaner, do_cache_clean);
+static struct delayed_work cache_cleaner;
 
 static void sunrpc_init_cache_detail(struct cache_detail *cd)
 {
@@ -1504,6 +1504,11 @@ static int create_cache_proc_entries(struct cache_detail *cd)
 }
 #endif
 
+void __init cache_initialize(void)
+{
+	INIT_DELAYED_WORK_DEFERRABLE(&cache_cleaner, do_cache_clean);
+}
+
 int cache_register(struct cache_detail *cd)
 {
 	int ret;
diff --git a/net/sunrpc/sunrpc_syms.c b/net/sunrpc/sunrpc_syms.c
index f438347d817b..c52b18489149 100644
--- a/net/sunrpc/sunrpc_syms.c
+++ b/net/sunrpc/sunrpc_syms.c
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ init_sunrpc(void)
 #ifdef CONFIG_PROC_FS
 	rpc_proc_init();
 #endif
+	cache_initialize();
 	cache_register(&ip_map_cache);
 	cache_register(&unix_gid_cache);
 	svc_init_xprt_sock();	/* svc sock transport */