diff --git a/libnetwork/sandbox.go b/libnetwork/sandbox.go
index 5a80470533..1fe9ed522a 100644
--- a/libnetwork/sandbox.go
+++ b/libnetwork/sandbox.go
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+// FIXME(thaJeztah): remove once we are a module; the go:build directive prevents go from downgrading language version to go1.16:
+//go:build go1.22
+
 package libnetwork
 
 import (