diff --git a/pkg/kube/dialer.go b/pkg/kube/dialer.go
index 5f110d2f8d..cf1f8918ee 100644
--- a/pkg/kube/dialer.go
+++ b/pkg/kube/dialer.go
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ func (p *PodDialer) DialContext(ctx context.Context, network string, address str
 		p.cleanupConnection(pod)
 	}
 
-	return wrapConn(ctx, onClose, network, address, dataStream, errorStream), nil
+	return wrapConn(onClose, network, address, dataStream, errorStream), nil
 }
 
 // parseDNS attempts to determine the intended pod to target, currently the
@@ -282,13 +282,12 @@ type conn struct {
 	onClose     func()
 
 	errCh  chan error
-	stopCh chan error
 	closed atomic.Bool
 }
 
 var _ net.Conn = (*conn)(nil)
 
-func wrapConn(ctx context.Context, onClose func(), network, remote string, s, err httpstream.Stream) *conn {
+func wrapConn(onClose func(), network, remote string, s, err httpstream.Stream) *conn {
 	c := &conn{
 		dataStream:  s,
 		errorStream: err,
@@ -296,24 +295,13 @@ func wrapConn(ctx context.Context, onClose func(), network, remote string, s, er
 		remote:      remote,
 		onClose:     onClose,
 		errCh:       make(chan error, 1),
-		stopCh:      make(chan error),
 	}
 
 	go c.pollErrors()
-	go c.checkCancelation(ctx)
 
 	return c
 }
 
-func (c *conn) checkCancelation(ctx context.Context) {
-	select {
-	case <-ctx.Done():
-		c.writeError(ctx.Err())
-		c.Close()
-	case <-c.stopCh:
-	}
-}
-
 func (c *conn) pollErrors() {
 	defer c.Close()
 
@@ -389,10 +377,6 @@ func (c *conn) Close() error {
 	// call our onClose cleanup handler
 	defer c.onClose()
 
-	// signal to any underlying goroutines that we are
-	// stopping
-	defer close(c.stopCh)
-
 	// closing the underlying connection should cause
 	// our error stream reading routine to stop
 	c.errorStream.Reset()
diff --git a/pkg/kube/dialer_test.go b/pkg/kube/dialer_test.go
index 0bdfabe69a..2cfc2bf0de 100644
--- a/pkg/kube/dialer_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kube/dialer_test.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package kube
 import (
 	"context"
 	"crypto/tls"
+	"io"
 	"net"
 	"net/http"
 	"testing"
@@ -154,8 +155,31 @@ func TestDialer(t *testing.T) {
 		"http://name.service.default.svc.cluster.local.",
 	} {
 		t.Run(host, func(t *testing.T) {
-			_, err = httpClient.Get(host)
-			require.NoError(t, err)
+			// Test the pooling behavior of HTTPClient by making requests to
+			// the same hosts a few times.
+			for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
+				func() {
+					// Run in a closure so we have a context scoped to the life
+					// time of each request we make, which is distinct from the
+					// lifetime of the connection due to http.Transport's
+					// connection pooling.
+					ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+					defer cancel()
+
+					req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, host, nil)
+					require.NoError(t, err)
+
+					resp, err := httpClient.Do(req)
+					require.NoError(t, err)
+
+					defer resp.Body.Close()
+
+					_, err = io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
+					require.NoError(t, err)
+
+					require.Equal(t, http.StatusOK, resp.StatusCode)
+				}()
+			}
 		})
 	}
 }