diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/proxy/upgradeaware.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/proxy/upgradeaware.go
index 8ef16eeb63fcb..53e9bbae4420f 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/proxy/upgradeaware.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/proxy/upgradeaware.go
@@ -202,6 +202,7 @@ func (h *UpgradeAwareHandler) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request
 
 	loc := *h.Location
 	loc.RawQuery = req.URL.RawQuery
+	method := req.Method
 
 	// If original request URL ended in '/', append a '/' at the end of the
 	// of the proxy URL
@@ -213,7 +214,7 @@ func (h *UpgradeAwareHandler) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request
 	// Redirect requests with an empty path to a location that ends with a '/'
 	// This is essentially a hack for http://issue.k8s.io/4958.
 	// Note: Keep this code after tryUpgrade to not break that flow.
-	if len(loc.Path) == 0 {
+	if len(loc.Path) == 0 && (method == http.MethodGet || method == http.MethodHead) {
 		var queryPart string
 		if len(req.URL.RawQuery) > 0 {
 			queryPart = "?" + req.URL.RawQuery