diff --git a/src/client.rs b/src/client.rs
index fd3fded5f..5eed92517 100644
--- a/src/client.rs
+++ b/src/client.rs
@@ -257,7 +257,6 @@ impl<C: ClientContext> Client<C> {
         native_config.set("log.queue", "true")?;
 
         let client_ptr = unsafe {
-            let native_config = ManuallyDrop::new(native_config);
             rdsys::rd_kafka_new(
                 rd_kafka_type,
                 native_config.ptr(),
@@ -271,6 +270,9 @@ impl<C: ClientContext> Client<C> {
             return Err(KafkaError::ClientCreation(err_buf.to_string()));
         }
 
+        // Let Rust drop `native_config` on failure and only `forget` after `rd_kafka_new` succeeds
+        std::mem::forget(native_config);
+
         let ret = unsafe {
             rdsys::rd_kafka_set_log_queue(client_ptr, rdsys::rd_kafka_queue_get_main(client_ptr))
         };