diff --git a/consumer.go b/consumer.go
index 7a4203cb..0a26ceed 100644
--- a/consumer.go
+++ b/consumer.go
@@ -660,32 +660,7 @@ func (r *Consumer) startStopContinueBackoff(conn *Conn, success bool) {
 		// start or continue backoff
 		backoffDuration := r.backoffDurationForCount(r.backoffCounter)
 		atomic.StoreInt64(&r.backoffDuration, backoffDuration.Nanoseconds())
-		time.AfterFunc(backoffDuration, func() {
-			var choice *Conn
-
-			atomic.StoreInt64(&r.backoffDuration, 0)
-
-			// pick a random connection to test the waters
-			var i int
-			conns := r.conns()
-			if len(conns) == 0 {
-				return
-			}
-			idx := r.rng.Intn(len(conns))
-			for _, c := range conns {
-				if i == idx {
-					choice = c
-					break
-				}
-				i++
-			}
-
-			r.log(LogLevelWarning,
-				"(%s) backoff timeout expired, sending RDY 1",
-				choice.String())
-			// while in backoff only ever let 1 message at a time through
-			r.updateRDY(choice, 1)
-		})
+		time.AfterFunc(backoffDuration, r.backoff)
 
 		r.log(LogLevelWarning, "backing off for %.04f seconds (backoff level %d), setting all to RDY 0",
 			backoffDuration.Seconds(), r.backoffCounter)
@@ -697,6 +672,32 @@ func (r *Consumer) startStopContinueBackoff(conn *Conn, success bool) {
 	}
 }
 
+func (r *Consumer) backoff() {
+	atomic.StoreInt64(&r.backoffDuration, 0)
+
+	if atomic.LoadInt32(&r.stopFlag) == 1 {
+		return
+	}
+
+	// pick a random connection to test the waters
+	conns := r.conns()
+	if len(conns) == 0 {
+		// backoff again
+		backoffDuration := 1 * time.Second
+		atomic.StoreInt64(&r.backoffDuration, backoffDuration.Nanoseconds())
+		time.AfterFunc(backoffDuration, r.backoff)
+		return
+	}
+	idx := r.rng.Intn(len(conns))
+	choice := conns[idx]
+
+	r.log(LogLevelWarning,
+		"(%s) backoff timeout expired, sending RDY 1",
+		choice.String())
+	// while in backoff only ever let 1 message at a time through
+	r.updateRDY(choice, 1)
+}
+
 func (r *Consumer) onConnResponse(c *Conn, data []byte) {
 	switch {
 	case bytes.Equal(data, []byte("CLOSE_WAIT")):