diff --git a/gunicorn/workers/gthread.py b/gunicorn/workers/gthread.py
index 7a23228cd..012cff846 100644
--- a/gunicorn/workers/gthread.py
+++ b/gunicorn/workers/gthread.py
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@ def __init__(self, cfg, sock, client, server):
         self.sock.setblocking(False)
 
     def init(self):
+        if self.initialized:
+            return
         self.initialized = True
         self.sock.setblocking(True)
 
@@ -111,7 +113,6 @@ def _wrap_future(self, fs, conn):
         fs.add_done_callback(self.finish_request)
 
     def enqueue_req(self, conn):
-        conn.init()
         # submit the connection to a worker
         fs = self.tpool.submit(self.handle, conn)
         self._wrap_future(fs, conn)
@@ -273,6 +274,7 @@ def handle(self, conn):
         keepalive = False
         req = None
         try:
+            conn.init()
             req = next(conn.parser)
             if not req:
                 return (False, conn)