diff --git a/plugins/system/webauthn/src/MetadataRepository.php b/plugins/system/webauthn/src/MetadataRepository.php
index 2937f3311e188..ca58b149e20e8 100644
--- a/plugins/system/webauthn/src/MetadataRepository.php
+++ b/plugins/system/webauthn/src/MetadataRepository.php
@@ -52,14 +52,12 @@ final class MetadataRepository implements MetadataStatementRepository
     private $mdsMap = [];
 
     /**
-     * Public constructor.
+     * Flag if the MSD data is loaded
      *
-     * @since 4.2.0
+     * @var   bool
+     * @since __DEPLOY_VERSION__
      */
-    public function __construct()
-    {
-        $this->load();
-    }
+    private $msdDataLoaded = false;
 
     /**
      * Find an authenticator metadata statement given an AAGUID
@@ -71,6 +69,8 @@ public function __construct()
      */
     public function findOneByAAGUID(string $aaguid): ?MetadataStatement
     {
+        $this->load();
+
         $idx = $this->mdsMap[$aaguid] ?? null;
 
         return $idx ? $this->mdsCache[$idx] : null;
@@ -84,6 +84,8 @@ public function findOneByAAGUID(string $aaguid): ?MetadataStatement
      */
     public function getKnownAuthenticators(): array
     {
+        $this->load();
+
         $mapKeys = function (MetadataStatement $meta) {
             return $meta->getAaguid();
         };
@@ -114,9 +116,14 @@ public function getKnownAuthenticators(): array
      */
     private function load(bool $force = false): void
     {
-        $this->mdsCache = [];
-        $this->mdsMap   = [];
-        $jwtFilename    = JPATH_CACHE . '/fido.jwt';
+        if ($this->msdDataLoaded && !$force) {
+            return;
+        }
+
+        $this->msdDataLoaded = true;
+        $this->mdsCache      = [];
+        $this->mdsMap        = [];
+        $jwtFilename         = JPATH_CACHE . '/fido.jwt';
 
         // If the file exists and it's over one month old do retry loading it.
         if (file_exists($jwtFilename) && filemtime($jwtFilename) < (time() - 2592000)) {