diff --git a/include/haproxy/pool-t.h b/include/haproxy/pool-t.h
index 073fe3251..bbdc5365a 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/pool-t.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/pool-t.h
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@
 /* possible flags for __pool_alloc() */
 #define POOL_F_NO_POISON    0x00000001  // do not poison the area
 #define POOL_F_MUST_ZERO    0x00000002  // zero the returned area
+#define POOL_F_NO_FAIL      0x00000004  // do not randomly fail
 
 
 struct pool_cache_head {
diff --git a/include/haproxy/pool.h b/include/haproxy/pool.h
index 6f0197115..0f76b9658 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/pool.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/pool.h
@@ -275,6 +275,11 @@ static inline void *__pool_alloc(struct pool_head *pool, unsigned int flags)
 {
 	void *p;
 
+#ifdef DEBUG_FAIL_ALLOC
+	if (!(flags & POOL_F_NO_FAIL) && mem_should_fail(pool))
+		return NULL;
+#endif
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_HAP_POOLS
 	if (likely(p = pool_get_from_local_cache(pool)))
 		goto ret;
diff --git a/src/pool.c b/src/pool.c
index 48cc46788..5939d961d 100644
--- a/src/pool.c
+++ b/src/pool.c
@@ -158,10 +158,6 @@ void *pool_alloc_nocache(struct pool_head *pool)
 	int limit = pool->limit;
 	void *ptr = NULL;
 
-#ifdef DEBUG_FAIL_ALLOC
-	if (mem_should_fail(pool))
-		return NULL;
-#endif
 	if (limit && allocated >= limit) {
 		activity[tid].pool_fail++;
 		return NULL;