diff --git a/Sources/SocketForwarder/UDPForwarder.swift b/Sources/SocketForwarder/UDPForwarder.swift
index 031e8dc15..4a8128166 100644
--- a/Sources/SocketForwarder/UDPForwarder.swift
+++ b/Sources/SocketForwarder/UDPForwarder.swift
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import NIOFoundationCompat
 import Synchronization
 
 // Proxy backend for a single client address (clientIP, clientPort).
-private final class UDPProxyBackend: ChannelInboundHandler {
+final class UDPProxyBackend: ChannelInboundHandler {
     typealias InboundIn = AddressedEnvelope<ByteBuffer>
     typealias OutboundOut = AddressedEnvelope<ByteBuffer>
 
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ private final class UDPProxyBackend: ChannelInboundHandler {
     private struct State {
         var queuedPayloads: Deque<ByteBuffer>
         var channel: (any Channel)?
+        var closed: Bool
     }
 
     private let clientAddress: SocketAddress
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ private final class UDPProxyBackend: ChannelInboundHandler {
         self.serverAddress = serverAddress
         self.frontendChannel = frontendChannel
         self.log = log
-        let initialState = State(queuedPayloads: Deque(), channel: nil)
+        let initialState = State(queuedPayloads: Deque(), channel: nil, closed: false)
         self.state = initialState
     }
 
@@ -61,6 +62,16 @@ private final class UDPProxyBackend: ChannelInboundHandler {
     }
 
     func channelActive(context: ChannelHandlerContext) {
+        guard !state.closed else {
+            // close() ran while this channel was still binding, so there was no channel to
+            // close at the time. Close it now rather than adopting it: the backend has
+            // already been evicted from the proxy cache, so no reference remains that could
+            // close it later.
+            self.log?.trace("backend - closing channel that became active after close")
+            state.queuedPayloads.removeAll()
+            context.channel.close(promise: nil)
+            return
+        }
         if !state.queuedPayloads.isEmpty {
             self.log?.trace("backend - writing \(state.queuedPayloads.count) queued datagrams to server")
             while let queuedData = state.queuedPayloads.popFirst() {
@@ -88,8 +99,9 @@ private final class UDPProxyBackend: ChannelInboundHandler {
     }
 
     func close() {
+        state.closed = true
         guard let channel = state.channel else {
-            self.log?.warning("backend - close on inactive channel")
+            self.log?.trace("backend - close requested before the channel became active")
             return
         }
         _ = channel.close()
diff --git a/Tests/SocketForwarderTests/UDPForwarderTest.swift b/Tests/SocketForwarderTests/UDPForwarderTest.swift
index 7ace24299..6041fa470 100644
--- a/Tests/SocketForwarderTests/UDPForwarderTest.swift
+++ b/Tests/SocketForwarderTests/UDPForwarderTest.swift
@@ -23,6 +23,33 @@ import Testing
 struct UDPForwarderTest {
     let eventLoopGroup = MultiThreadedEventLoopGroup(numberOfThreads: System.coreCount)
 
+    /// A backend evicted from the proxy cache before its channel finished binding used to
+    /// have no channel to close, and nothing closed the socket once it became active.
+    @Test
+    func testBackendClosedBeforeChannelActiveClosesTheChannel() throws {
+        let clientAddress = try SocketAddress(ipAddress: "127.0.0.1", port: 12345)
+        let serverAddress = try SocketAddress(ipAddress: "127.0.0.1", port: 54321)
+        let frontendChannel = EmbeddedChannel()
+
+        let backend = UDPProxyBackend(
+            clientAddress: clientAddress,
+            serverAddress: serverAddress,
+            frontendChannel: frontendChannel,
+            log: nil
+        )
+
+        // Evicted while the backend channel is still binding, so there is no channel yet.
+        backend.close()
+
+        // The bind then completes and the channel becomes active.
+        let backendChannel = EmbeddedChannel(handler: backend)
+        try backendChannel.connect(to: serverAddress).wait()
+
+        #expect(!backendChannel.isActive)
+        _ = try? backendChannel.finish()
+        _ = try? frontendChannel.finish()
+    }
+
     @Test
     func testUDPForwarder() async throws {
         let requestCount = 100