diff --git a/src/ngMock/angular-mocks.js b/src/ngMock/angular-mocks.js
index 9d010b4ab9c6..dcefe12008ca 100644
--- a/src/ngMock/angular-mocks.js
+++ b/src/ngMock/angular-mocks.js
@@ -2131,7 +2131,7 @@ angular.mock.$RootScopeDecorator = ['$delegate', function($delegate) {
 if (window.jasmine || window.mocha) {
 
   var currentSpec = null,
-      annotatedFunctions,
+      annotatedFunctions = [],
       isSpecRunning = function() {
         return !!currentSpec;
       };
diff --git a/test/ngMock/angular-mocksSpec.js b/test/ngMock/angular-mocksSpec.js
index 78cb1e268736..104ece1c0aa5 100644
--- a/test/ngMock/angular-mocksSpec.js
+++ b/test/ngMock/angular-mocksSpec.js
@@ -1813,3 +1813,10 @@ describe('ngMockE2E', function() {
     });
   });
 });
+
+describe('make sure that we can create an injector outside of tests', function() {
+  //since some libraries create custom injectors outside of tests,
+  //we want to make sure that this is not breaking the internals of
+  //how we manage annotated function cleanup during tests. See #10967
+  angular.injector([function($injector) {}]);
+});