diff --git a/package/mplayer/mplayer.mk b/package/mplayer/mplayer.mk
index 541dd4f75c..6baf500902 100644
--- a/package/mplayer/mplayer.mk
+++ b/package/mplayer/mplayer.mk
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ MPLAYER_LICENSE_FILES = LICENSE Copyright
 MPLAYER_CFLAGS = $(TARGET_CFLAGS)
 MPLAYER_LDFLAGS = $(TARGET_LDFLAGS)
 
+# Adding $(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include in the header path is normally not
+# needed. Except that mplayer's configure script has a completely
+# brain-damaged way of looking for X11/Xlib.h (it parses extra-cflags
+# for -I options).
+MPLAYER_CFLAGS += -I$(STAGING_DIR)/usr/include
+
 # mplayer needs pcm+mixer support, but configure fails to check for it
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_ALSA_LIB)$(BR2_PACKAGE_ALSA_LIB_MIXER)$(BR2_PACKAGE_ALSA_LIB_PCM),yyy)
 MPLAYER_DEPENDENCIES += alsa-lib