diff --git a/common/src/main/java/io/netty/util/internal/PlatformDependent.java b/common/src/main/java/io/netty/util/internal/PlatformDependent.java
index df9b52d87c..67f29e83f0 100644
--- a/common/src/main/java/io/netty/util/internal/PlatformDependent.java
+++ b/common/src/main/java/io/netty/util/internal/PlatformDependent.java
@@ -228,7 +228,11 @@ public final class PlatformDependent {
      */
     public static void freeDirectBuffer(ByteBuffer buffer) {
         if (buffer.isDirect()) {
-            PlatformDependent0.freeDirectBuffer(buffer);
+            if (hasUnsafe()) {
+                PlatformDependent0.freeDirectBufferUnsafe(buffer);
+            } else {
+                PlatformDependent0.freeDirectBuffer(buffer);
+            }
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/common/src/main/java/io/netty/util/internal/PlatformDependent0.java b/common/src/main/java/io/netty/util/internal/PlatformDependent0.java
index a9b6a65648..5eaf573721 100644
--- a/common/src/main/java/io/netty/util/internal/PlatformDependent0.java
+++ b/common/src/main/java/io/netty/util/internal/PlatformDependent0.java
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ final class PlatformDependent0 {
 
     private static final long CLEANER_FIELD_OFFSET;
     private static final long ADDRESS_FIELD_OFFSET;
+    private static final Field CLEANER_FIELD;
 
     /**
      * {@code true} if and only if the platform supports unaligned access.
@@ -56,6 +57,7 @@ final class PlatformDependent0 {
         } catch (Throwable t) {
             cleanerField = null;
         }
+        CLEANER_FIELD = cleanerField;
         logger.debug("java.nio.ByteBuffer.cleaner: {}", cleanerField != null? "available" : "unavailable");
 
         Field addressField;
@@ -145,7 +147,7 @@ final class PlatformDependent0 {
         UNSAFE.throwException(t);
     }
 
-    static void freeDirectBuffer(ByteBuffer buffer) {
+    static void freeDirectBufferUnsafe(ByteBuffer buffer) {
         Cleaner cleaner;
         try {
             cleaner = (Cleaner) getObject(buffer, CLEANER_FIELD_OFFSET);
@@ -159,6 +161,22 @@ final class PlatformDependent0 {
         }
     }
 
+    static void freeDirectBuffer(ByteBuffer buffer) {
+        if (CLEANER_FIELD == null) {
+            return;
+        }
+        try {
+            Cleaner cleaner = (Cleaner) CLEANER_FIELD.get(buffer);
+            if (cleaner == null) {
+                throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+                        "attempted to deallocate the buffer which was allocated via JNIEnv->NewDirectByteBuffer()");
+            }
+            cleaner.clean();
+        } catch (Throwable t) {
+            // Nothing we can do here.
+        }
+    }
+
     static long directBufferAddress(ByteBuffer buffer) {
         return getLong(buffer, ADDRESS_FIELD_OFFSET);
     }