diff --git a/src/main/java/io/reactivex/rxjava3/internal/queue/MpscLinkedQueue.java b/src/main/java/io/reactivex/rxjava3/internal/queue/MpscLinkedQueue.java
index d735ff43c0..e8d19c633e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/io/reactivex/rxjava3/internal/queue/MpscLinkedQueue.java
+++ b/src/main/java/io/reactivex/rxjava3/internal/queue/MpscLinkedQueue.java
@@ -91,6 +91,8 @@ public T poll() {
             // we have to null out the value because we are going to hang on to the node
             final T nextValue = nextNode.getAndNullValue();
             spConsumerNode(nextNode);
+            // unlink previous consumer to help gc
+            currConsumerNode.soNext(null);
             return nextValue;
         }
         else if (currConsumerNode != lvProducerNode()) {
@@ -101,6 +103,8 @@ else if (currConsumerNode != lvProducerNode()) {
             // we have to null out the value because we are going to hang on to the node
             final T nextValue = nextNode.getAndNullValue();
             spConsumerNode(nextNode);
+            // unlink previous consumer to help gc
+            currConsumerNode.soNext(null);
             return nextValue;
         }
         return null;