diff --git a/libpod/container_internal_linux.go b/libpod/container_internal_linux.go
index 42223587ef..a7b16a7f0a 100644
--- a/libpod/container_internal_linux.go
+++ b/libpod/container_internal_linux.go
@@ -71,6 +71,14 @@ func (c *Container) prepare() error {
 
 	go func() {
 		defer wg.Done()
+		if c.state.State == define.ContainerStateStopped {
+			// networking should not be reused after a stop
+			if err := c.cleanupNetwork(); err != nil {
+				createNetNSErr = err
+				return
+			}
+		}
+
 		// Set up network namespace if not already set up
 		noNetNS := c.state.NetNS == ""
 		if c.config.CreateNetNS && noNetNS && !c.config.PostConfigureNetNS {
diff --git a/test/e2e/restart_test.go b/test/e2e/restart_test.go
index 69401ad7c7..dcdd5f231c 100644
--- a/test/e2e/restart_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/restart_test.go
@@ -193,12 +193,13 @@ var _ = Describe("Podman restart", func() {
 		session.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
 		Expect(session).Should(ExitCleanly())
 
-		testCmd := []string{"exec", "host-restart-test", "sh", "-c", "wc -l < /etc/hosts"}
+		testCmd := []string{"exec", "host-restart-test", "cat", "/etc/hosts"}
 
 		// before restart
 		beforeRestart := podmanTest.Podman(testCmd)
 		beforeRestart.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
 		Expect(beforeRestart).Should(ExitCleanly())
+		nHostLines := len(beforeRestart.OutputToStringArray())
 
 		session = podmanTest.Podman([]string{"restart", "host-restart-test"})
 		session.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
@@ -209,7 +210,8 @@ var _ = Describe("Podman restart", func() {
 		Expect(afterRestart).Should(ExitCleanly())
 
 		// line count should be equal
-		Expect(beforeRestart.OutputToString()).To(Equal(afterRestart.OutputToString()))
+		Expect(afterRestart.OutputToStringArray()).To(HaveLen(nHostLines),
+			"number of host lines post-restart == number of lines pre-restart")
 	})
 
 	It("podman restart all stopped containers with --all", func() {
diff --git a/test/system/045-start.bats b/test/system/045-start.bats
index b4840e76b1..52b2abc00d 100644
--- a/test/system/045-start.bats
+++ b/test/system/045-start.bats
@@ -58,6 +58,9 @@ load helpers
     is "$output" ".*$c1_id.*" "--filter finds container 1"
     is "$output" ".*$c3_id.*" "--filter finds container 3"
 
+    # start again, before this fix it could panic
+    run_podman start --filter restart-policy=always
+
     # Start via filtered names
     run_podman start --filter restart-policy=on-failure $c2 $c3
     is "$output" "$c2" "--filter finds container 2"