diff --git a/src/core/varlink-metrics.c b/src/core/varlink-metrics.c
index 15bd1f154c..69eff4ef8a 100644
--- a/src/core/varlink-metrics.c
+++ b/src/core/varlink-metrics.c
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 /* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 
+#include "sd-json.h"
+#include "sd-varlink.h"
+
 #include "hashmap.h"
 #include "manager.h"
 #include "metrics.h"
diff --git a/src/core/varlink-metrics.h b/src/core/varlink-metrics.h
index 92e7d81cf8..782a3641c3 100644
--- a/src/core/varlink-metrics.h
+++ b/src/core/varlink-metrics.h
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 /* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 #pragma once
 
-#include "sd-varlink.h"
-#include "sd-json.h"
+#include "core-forward.h"
 
 #define METRIC_IO_SYSTEMD_MANAGER_PREFIX "io.systemd.Manager."