diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio.c b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
index 6105c6eb6205..74c085c74d26 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
@@ -268,6 +268,7 @@ void virtqueue_discard(VirtQueue *vq, const VirtQueueElement *elem,
                        unsigned int len)
 {
     vq->last_avail_idx--;
+    vq->inuse--;
     virtqueue_unmap_sg(vq, elem, len);
 }