diff --git a/changelogs/unreleased/20452-remove-require-from-request_profiler-initializer.yml b/changelogs/unreleased/20452-remove-require-from-request_profiler-initializer.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..965d0648adf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/unreleased/20452-remove-require-from-request_profiler-initializer.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+---
+title: Don't require lib/gitlab/request_profiler/middleware.rb in config/initializers/request_profiler.rb
+merge_request:
+author:
diff --git a/config/initializers/request_profiler.rb b/config/initializers/request_profiler.rb
index a9aa802681a..fb5a7b8372e 100644
--- a/config/initializers/request_profiler.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/request_profiler.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-require 'gitlab/request_profiler/middleware'
-
 Rails.application.configure do |config|
   config.middleware.use(Gitlab::RequestProfiler::Middleware)
 end
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/request_profiler/middleware.rb b/lib/gitlab/request_profiler/middleware.rb
index 786e1d49f5e..ef42b0557e0 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/request_profiler/middleware.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/request_profiler/middleware.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 require 'ruby-prof'
-require_dependency 'gitlab/request_profiler'
 
 module Gitlab
   module RequestProfiler
@@ -20,7 +19,7 @@ module Gitlab
         header_token = env['HTTP_X_PROFILE_TOKEN']
         return unless header_token.present?
 
-        profile_token = RequestProfiler.profile_token
+        profile_token = Gitlab::RequestProfiler.profile_token
         return unless profile_token.present?
 
         header_token == profile_token