diff --git a/toolkit/content/widgets/tabbrowser.xml b/toolkit/content/widgets/tabbrowser.xml
index 8eee4e3ae458..11f4908ff349 100644
--- a/toolkit/content/widgets/tabbrowser.xml
+++ b/toolkit/content/widgets/tabbrowser.xml
@@ -968,7 +968,7 @@
             // can occur when "browser.tabs.loadInBackground" is false and presshell is not ready
             if (!bgLoad) {
               function selectNewForegroundTab(browser, tab) {
-                this.selectedTab = tab;
+                browser.selectedTab = tab;
               }
               setTimeout(selectNewForegroundTab, 0, getBrowser(), tab);
             }