diff --git a/walkeeper/src/replication.rs b/walkeeper/src/replication.rs
index 4aadc4885f..9f9e974336 100644
--- a/walkeeper/src/replication.rs
+++ b/walkeeper/src/replication.rs
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use std::cmp::min;
 use std::fs::File;
 use std::io::{Read, Seek, SeekFrom};
+use std::net::Shutdown;
 use std::path::Path;
 use std::sync::Arc;
 use std::thread::sleep;
@@ -90,7 +91,7 @@ impl ReplicationConn {
 
     /// Handle incoming messages from the network.
     /// This is spawned into the background by `handle_start_replication`.
-    fn background_thread(mut stream_in: impl Read, timeline: Arc<Timeline>) -> Result<()> {
+    fn background_thread(mut stream_in: ReadStream, timeline: Arc<Timeline>) -> Result<()> {
         let mut state = ReplicaState::new();
         let replica = timeline.add_replica(state);
         let _guard = ReplicationConnGuard {
@@ -121,7 +122,12 @@ impl ReplicationConn {
                     }
                 }
                 FeMessage::Sync => {}
-                FeMessage::CopyFail => return Err(anyhow!("Copy failed")),
+                FeMessage::CopyFail => {
+                    // Shutdown the connection, because rust-postgres client cannot be dropped
+                    // when connection is alive.
+                    let _ = stream_in.shutdown(Shutdown::Both);
+                    return Err(anyhow!("Copy failed"));
+                }
                 _ => {
                     // We only handle `CopyData`, 'Sync', 'CopyFail' messages. Anything else is ignored.
                     info!("unexpected message {:?}", msg);
@@ -175,6 +181,8 @@ impl ReplicationConn {
         let bg_timeline = Arc::clone(swh.timeline.get());
         let bg_stream_in = self.stream_in.take().unwrap();
 
+        // TODO: here we got two threads, one for writing WAL and one for receiving
+        // feedback. If one of them fails, we should shutdown the other one too.
         let _ = thread::Builder::new()
             .name("HotStandbyFeedback thread".into())
             .spawn(move || {