diff --git a/images/router/haproxy/conf/haproxy-config.template b/images/router/haproxy/conf/haproxy-config.template
index 0cf5f1308..b02c24103 100644
--- a/images/router/haproxy/conf/haproxy-config.template
+++ b/images/router/haproxy/conf/haproxy-config.template
@@ -158,7 +158,6 @@ defaults
   timeout connect {{ firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (env "ROUTER_DEFAULT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT") "5s" }}
   timeout client {{ firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (env "ROUTER_DEFAULT_CLIENT_TIMEOUT") "30s" }}
   timeout client-fin {{ firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (env "ROUTER_CLIENT_FIN_TIMEOUT") "1s" }}
-  timeout server {{ firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (env "ROUTER_DEFAULT_SERVER_TIMEOUT") "30s" }}
   timeout server-fin {{ firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (env "ROUTER_DEFAULT_SERVER_FIN_TIMEOUT") "1s" }}
   timeout http-request {{ firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (env "ROUTER_SLOWLORIS_TIMEOUT") "10s" }}
   timeout http-keep-alive {{ firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (env "ROUTER_SLOWLORIS_HTTP_KEEPALIVE") "300s" }}
@@ -580,6 +579,8 @@ backend {{ genBackendNamePrefix $cfg.TLSTermination }}:{{ $cfgIdx }}
         {{- end }}
         {{- with $value := clipHAProxyTimeoutValue (firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (index $cfg.Annotations "haproxy.router.openshift.io/timeout")) }}
   timeout server  {{ $value }}
+        {{- else }}
+  timeout server {{ firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (env "ROUTER_DEFAULT_SERVER_TIMEOUT") "30s" }}
         {{- end }}
         {{- with $value := clipHAProxyTimeoutValue (firstMatch $timeSpecPattern (index $cfg.Annotations "haproxy.router.openshift.io/timeout-tunnel")) }}
   timeout tunnel  {{ $value }}