diff --git a/router-tests/mcp_test.go b/router-tests/mcp_test.go
index 0f21bd16af..be7cc60521 100644
--- a/router-tests/mcp_test.go
+++ b/router-tests/mcp_test.go
@@ -874,5 +874,112 @@ input UserInput {
 				// ultimately reaches the subgraphs.
 			})
 		})
+
+		t.Run("Hop-by-hop and filtered headers are not forwarded", func(t *testing.T) {
+			var capturedSubgraphRequest *http.Request
+			var subgraphMutex sync.Mutex
+
+			testenv.Run(t, &testenv.Config{
+				MCP: config.MCPConfiguration{
+					Enabled: true,
+					Session: config.MCPSessionConfig{
+						Stateless: true,
+					},
+				},
+				RouterOptions: []core.Option{
+					// Forward all headers
+					core.WithHeaderRules(config.HeaderRules{
+						All: &config.GlobalHeaderRule{
+							Request: []*config.RequestHeaderRule{
+								{
+									Operation: config.HeaderRuleOperationPropagate,
+									Matching:  ".*",
+								},
+							},
+						},
+					}),
+				},
+				Subgraphs: testenv.SubgraphsConfig{
+					GlobalMiddleware: func(handler http.Handler) http.Handler {
+						return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+							subgraphMutex.Lock()
+							capturedSubgraphRequest = r.Clone(r.Context())
+							subgraphMutex.Unlock()
+							handler.ServeHTTP(w, r)
+						})
+					},
+				},
+			}, func(t *testing.T, xEnv *testenv.Environment) {
+				mcpAddr := xEnv.GetMCPServerAddr()
+
+				mcpRequest := map[string]interface{}{
+					"jsonrpc": "2.0",
+					"id":      1,
+					"method":  "tools/call",
+					"params": map[string]interface{}{
+						"name": "execute_operation_my_employees",
+						"arguments": map[string]interface{}{
+							"criteria": map[string]interface{}{},
+						},
+					},
+				}
+
+				requestBody, err := json.Marshal(mcpRequest)
+				require.NoError(t, err)
+
+				req, err := http.NewRequest("POST", mcpAddr, strings.NewReader(string(requestBody)))
+				require.NoError(t, err)
+
+				// Set headers that should be filtered
+				req.Header.Set("Proxy-Authenticate", "Basic")
+				req.Header.Set("Proxy-Authorization", "Basic YWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuc2VzYW1l")
+				req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json; foo=bar") // Custom param that should be stripped
+				req.Header.Set("Accept", "application/json")
+				req.Header.Set("Accept-Encoding", "br") // Request brotli (which go client doesn't support by default)
+				req.Header.Set("Alt-Svc", "h2=\":443\"; ma=2592000")
+				req.Header.Set("Proxy-Connection", "keep-alive")
+
+				// Set a header that SHOULD be forwarded for control
+				req.Header.Set("X-Allowed-Header", "allowed")
+
+				resp, err := xEnv.RouterClient.Do(req)
+				require.NoError(t, err)
+				defer resp.Body.Close()
+
+				if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
+					t.Logf("Response Status: %d", resp.StatusCode)
+				}
+				require.Equal(t, http.StatusOK, resp.StatusCode)
+
+				subgraphMutex.Lock()
+				defer subgraphMutex.Unlock()
+
+				require.NotNil(t, capturedSubgraphRequest)
+
+				// Check control header
+				assert.Equal(t, "allowed", capturedSubgraphRequest.Header.Get("X-Allowed-Header"))
+
+				// Check filtered headers
+				assert.NotEqual(t, "Basic", capturedSubgraphRequest.Header.Get("Proxy-Authenticate"))
+				assert.NotEqual(t, "Basic YWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuc2VzYW1l", capturedSubgraphRequest.Header.Get("Proxy-Authorization"))
+
+				// Content-Type should be set by MCP server to application/json (and stripped of custom params)
+				ct := capturedSubgraphRequest.Header.Get("Content-Type")
+				assert.True(t, strings.HasPrefix(ct, "application/json"), "Content-Type should start with application/json")
+				assert.False(t, strings.Contains(ct, "foo=bar"), "Content-Type should not contain forwarded parameters")
+
+				// Accept should be set by MCP server
+				assert.Equal(t, "application/json", capturedSubgraphRequest.Header.Get("Accept"))
+
+				// Accept-Encoding should be set by the Go HTTP client (gzip), not what we sent (br)
+				ae := capturedSubgraphRequest.Header.Get("Accept-Encoding")
+				assert.Contains(t, ae, "gzip", "Accept-Encoding should contain gzip (set by Go client)")
+				assert.NotContains(t, ae, "br", "Accept-Encoding should not contain br (filtered from request)")
+
+				// Other headers should be missing
+				assert.Empty(t, capturedSubgraphRequest.Header.Get("Alt-Svc"))
+				assert.Empty(t, capturedSubgraphRequest.Header.Get("Proxy-Connection"))
+			})
+		})
 	})
 }
diff --git a/router/pkg/mcpserver/server.go b/router/pkg/mcpserver/server.go
index fc5812869e..d1f8802b3c 100644
--- a/router/pkg/mcpserver/server.go
+++ b/router/pkg/mcpserver/server.go
@@ -37,6 +37,29 @@ func requestHeadersFromRequest(ctx context.Context, r *http.Request) context.Con
 	return withRequestHeaders(ctx, headers)
 }
 
+var skippedHeaders = map[string]struct{}{
+	"Connection":               {},
+	"Keep-Alive":               {},
+	"Proxy-Authenticate":       {},
+	"Proxy-Authorization":      {},
+	"Te":                       {},
+	"Trailer":                  {},
+	"Transfer-Encoding":        {},
+	"Upgrade":                  {},
+	"Host":                     {},
+	"Content-Length":           {},
+	"Content-Type":             {},
+	"Accept":                   {},
+	"Accept-Encoding":          {},
+	"Accept-Charset":           {},
+	"Alt-Svc":                  {},
+	"Proxy-Connection":         {},
+	"Sec-Websocket-Extensions": {},
+	"Sec-Websocket-Key":        {},
+	"Sec-Websocket-Protocol":   {},
+	"Sec-Websocket-Version":    {},
+}
+
 // headersFromContext extracts the request headers from the context.
 func headersFromContext(ctx context.Context) (http.Header, error) {
 	headers, ok := ctx.Value(requestHeadersKey{}).(http.Header)
@@ -686,6 +709,10 @@ func (s *GraphQLSchemaServer) executeGraphQLQuery(ctx context.Context, query str
 	} else {
 		// Copy all headers from the MCP request
 		for key, values := range headers {
+			// Skip headers that should not be forwarded
+			if _, ok := skippedHeaders[key]; ok {
+				continue
+			}
 			for _, value := range values {
 				req.Header.Add(key, value)
 			}