diff --git a/pkg/charts/linkerd2/values.go b/pkg/charts/linkerd2/values.go
index 1904451b6..fffeed596 100644
--- a/pkg/charts/linkerd2/values.go
+++ b/pkg/charts/linkerd2/values.go
@@ -266,7 +266,6 @@ func NewValues() (*Values, error) {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	v.Proxy.Image.Version = version.Version
 	v.DebugContainer.Image.Version = version.Version
 	v.CliVersion = k8s.CreatedByAnnotationValue()
 	v.ProfileValidator.TLS = &TLS{}
diff --git a/pkg/charts/linkerd2/values_test.go b/pkg/charts/linkerd2/values_test.go
index ef6b5edf7..4ddcd9a31 100644
--- a/pkg/charts/linkerd2/values_test.go
+++ b/pkg/charts/linkerd2/values_test.go
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ func TestNewValues(t *testing.T) {
 			EnableExternalProfiles: false,
 			Image: &Image{
 				Name:    "cr.l5d.io/linkerd/proxy",
-				Version: "dev-undefined",
+				Version: "",
 			},
 			LogLevel:  "warn,linkerd=info",
 			LogFormat: "plain",
diff --git a/pkg/inject/inject.go b/pkg/inject/inject.go
index 0e0d1202c..53a58702f 100644
--- a/pkg/inject/inject.go
+++ b/pkg/inject/inject.go
@@ -795,7 +795,12 @@ func (conf *ResourceConfig) serviceAccountVolumeMount() *corev1.VolumeMount {
 // annotations.
 func (conf *ResourceConfig) injectObjectMeta(values *podPatch) {
 
-	values.Annotations[k8s.ProxyVersionAnnotation] = values.Proxy.Image.Version
+	// Default proxy version to linkerd version
+	if values.Proxy.Image.Version != "" {
+		values.Annotations[k8s.ProxyVersionAnnotation] = values.Proxy.Image.Version
+	} else {
+		values.Annotations[k8s.ProxyVersionAnnotation] = values.LinkerdVersion
+	}
 
 	// Add the cert bundle's checksum to the workload's annotations.
 	checksumBytes := sha256.Sum256([]byte(values.IdentityTrustAnchorsPEM))
diff --git a/test/integration/install/install_test.go b/test/integration/install/install_test.go
index cdd5bc98b..b3dad6e4c 100644
--- a/test/integration/install/install_test.go
+++ b/test/integration/install/install_test.go
@@ -625,7 +625,8 @@ func TestOverridesSecret(t *testing.T) {
 			}
 			knownKeys["proxy"] = tree.Tree{
 				"image": tree.Tree{
-					"name": reg + "/proxy",
+					"name":    reg + "/proxy",
+					"version": TestHelper.GetVersion(),
 				},
 			}
 			knownKeys["proxyInit"].(tree.Tree)["image"] = tree.Tree{