diff --git a/pkg/k8sclient/k8sclient.go b/pkg/k8sclient/k8sclient.go
index 83f306f80..a96113538 100644
--- a/pkg/k8sclient/k8sclient.go
+++ b/pkg/k8sclient/k8sclient.go
@@ -82,6 +82,15 @@ func (c *ClientInfo) GetPod(namespace, name string) (*v1.Pod, error) {
 	return c.Client.CoreV1().Pods(namespace).Get(context.TODO(), name, metav1.GetOptions{})
 }
 
+// GetPodContext gets pod from kubernetes with context
+func (c *ClientInfo) GetPodContext(ctx context.Context, namespace, name string) (*v1.Pod, error) {
+	if c.PodInformer != nil {
+		logging.Debugf("GetPod for [%s/%s] will use informer cache", namespace, name)
+		return listers.NewPodLister(c.PodInformer.GetIndexer()).Pods(namespace).Get(name)
+	}
+	return c.Client.CoreV1().Pods(namespace).Get(ctx, name, metav1.GetOptions{})
+}
+
 // DeletePod deletes a pod from kubernetes
 func (c *ClientInfo) DeletePod(namespace, name string) error {
 	return c.Client.CoreV1().Pods(namespace).Delete(context.TODO(), name, metav1.DeleteOptions{})
diff --git a/pkg/multus/multus.go b/pkg/multus/multus.go
index 6ae6243c4..532ec1193 100644
--- a/pkg/multus/multus.go
+++ b/pkg/multus/multus.go
@@ -542,7 +542,10 @@ func GetPod(kubeClient *k8s.ClientInfo, k8sArgs *types.K8sArgs, isDel bool) (*v1
 	var pod *v1.Pod
 	if err := wait.PollImmediate(pollDuration, shortPollTimeout, func() (bool, error) {
 		var getErr error
-		pod, getErr = kubeClient.GetPod(podNamespace, podName)
+		// Use context with a short timeout so the call to API server doesn't take too long.
+		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.TODO(), pollDuration)
+		defer cancel()
+		pod, getErr = kubeClient.GetPodContext(ctx, podNamespace, podName)
 		if isCriticalRequestRetriable(getErr) || retryOnNotFound(getErr) {
 			return false, nil
 		}
@@ -555,7 +558,9 @@ func GetPod(kubeClient *k8s.ClientInfo, k8sArgs *types.K8sArgs, isDel bool) (*v1
 		// Try one more time to get the pod directly from the apiserver;
 		// TODO: figure out why static pods don't show up via the informer
 		// and always hit this case.
-		pod, err = kubeClient.GetPod(podNamespace, podName)
+		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.TODO(), pollDuration)
+		defer cancel()
+		pod, err = kubeClient.GetPodContext(ctx, podNamespace, podName)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, cmdErr(k8sArgs, "error waiting for pod: %v", err)
 		}