diff --git a/include/haproxy/stats-t.h b/include/haproxy/stats-t.h
index 14a822d92..7a320c921 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/stats-t.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/stats-t.h
@@ -342,6 +342,10 @@ enum stat_idx_info {
 	ST_I_INF_MAX
 };
 
+/* Flags for stat_col.flags */
+#define STAT_COL_FL_NONE    0x00
+#define STAT_COL_FL_GENERIC 0x01        /* stat is generic if set */
+
 /* Represent an exposed statistic. */
 struct stat_col {
 	const char *name; /* short name, used notably in CSV headers */
@@ -350,8 +354,8 @@ struct stat_col {
 
 	uint32_t type;    /* combination of field_nature and field_format */
 	uint8_t cap;      /* mask of stats_domain_px_cap to restrain metrics to an object types subset */
-	uint8_t generic;  /* bit set if generic */
-	/* 2 bytes hole */
+	/* 1 byte hole */
+	uint16_t flags;   /* STAT_COL_FL_* flags */
 
 	/* used only for generic metrics */
 	struct {
diff --git a/include/haproxy/stats.h b/include/haproxy/stats.h
index f292ba4dd..b7895be2b 100644
--- a/include/haproxy/stats.h
+++ b/include/haproxy/stats.h
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ int stats_emit_field_tags(struct buffer *out, const struct field *f,
 /* Returns true if <col> is fully defined, false if only used as name-desc. */
 static inline int stcol_is_generic(const struct stat_col *col)
 {
-	return col->generic;
+	return col->flags & STAT_COL_FL_GENERIC;
 }
 
 static inline enum field_format stcol_format(const struct stat_col *col)
diff --git a/src/stats-proxy.c b/src/stats-proxy.c
index 6e4ad4649..90d82f0e9 100644
--- a/src/stats-proxy.c
+++ b/src/stats-proxy.c
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
     .metric.offset[0] = offsetof(struct fe_counters, offset_f),               \
     .metric.offset[1] = offsetof(struct be_counters, offset_f),               \
     .cap = (cap_f),                                                           \
-    .generic = 1,                                                             \
+    .flags = STAT_COL_FL_GENERIC,                                             \
     .alt_name = alt_n,                                                        \
   }
 
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
   { .name = (name_f), .desc = (desc_f), .type = (nature)|(format),            \
     .metric.offset[0] = offsetof(struct fe_counters, offset_f),               \
     .cap = (cap_f),                                                           \
-    .generic = 1,                                                             \
+    .flags = STAT_COL_FL_GENERIC,                                             \
     .alt_name = alt_n,                                                        \
   }
 
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
   { .name = (name_f), .desc = (desc_f), .type = (nature)|(format),            \
     .metric.offset[1] = offsetof(struct be_counters, offset_f),               \
     .cap = (cap_f),                                                           \
-    .generic = 1,                                                             \
+    .flags = STAT_COL_FL_GENERIC,                                             \
     .alt_name = alt_n,                                                        \
   }