diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/8100-haproxy-drain-fails-on-down-backend.yml b/changelogs/fragments/8100-haproxy-drain-fails-on-down-backend.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..58f1478914
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/8100-haproxy-drain-fails-on-down-backend.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "haproxy - fix an issue where HAProxy could get stuck in DRAIN mode when the backend was unreachable (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/issues/8092)."
diff --git a/plugins/modules/haproxy.py b/plugins/modules/haproxy.py
index 05f52d55c8..cbaa438334 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/haproxy.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/haproxy.py
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ class HAProxy(object):
 
             if state is not None:
                 self.execute(Template(cmd).substitute(pxname=backend, svname=svname))
-                if self.wait:
+                if self.wait and not (wait_for_status == "DRAIN" and state == "DOWN"):
                     self.wait_until_status(backend, svname, wait_for_status)
 
     def get_state_for(self, pxname, svname):