diff --git a/src/cmd/go/internal/modfetch/proxy.go b/src/cmd/go/internal/modfetch/proxy.go
index 896f310bdf..bddeca3340 100644
--- a/src/cmd/go/internal/modfetch/proxy.go
+++ b/src/cmd/go/internal/modfetch/proxy.go
@@ -238,13 +238,17 @@ func (p *proxyRepo) CheckReuse(ctx context.Context, old *codehost.Origin) error
 // versionError returns err wrapped in a ModuleError for p.path.
 func (p *proxyRepo) versionError(version string, err error) error {
 	if version != "" && version != module.CanonicalVersion(version) {
-		return &module.ModuleError{
-			Path: p.path,
-			Err: &module.InvalidVersionError{
+		var iv *module.InvalidVersionError
+		if !errors.As(err, &iv) {
+			iv = &module.InvalidVersionError{
 				Version: version,
 				Pseudo:  module.IsPseudoVersion(version),
 				Err:     err,
-			},
+			}
+		}
+		return &module.ModuleError{
+			Path: p.path,
+			Err:  iv,
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/get_version_error_44810.txt b/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/get_version_error_44810.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..37c7b8e4be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cmd/go/testdata/script/get_version_error_44810.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# Issue #44810: go get should not produce unnecessarily repetitive
+# "invalid version" error messages.
+
+go mod init m
+
+# A version string containing a slash should produce a concise error
+# without repeating the version information multiple times.
+! go get example.com/mod@branch/with/slash
+stderr '^go: example.com/mod@branch/with/slash: invalid version: disallowed version string$'
+! stderr 'version "branch/with/slash" invalid'