Topology injector blocking envoy proxy from starting

[arkodg]

Description:

What issue is being seen? Describe what should be happening instead of
the bug, for example: The expected value isn't returned, etc.

Noticed envoy-proxy pods were not starting

Conditions:
  Type           Status  Reason
  ----           ------  ------
  Available      False   MinimumReplicasUnavailable
  Progressing    True    ReplicaSetUpdated

in the envoy gateway logs, I noticed topology injector failures

2025-05-01T15:58:03.840Z	ERROR	provider	kubernetes/topology_injector.go:78	error decoding patch: unexpected end of JSON inputpatch pod failedpodenvoy-gateway-system/envoy-default-eg-e41e7b31-654ccf5f87-mw6hk	{"runner": "provider"}

Repro steps:

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required to reproduce the bug.

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Environment:

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Logs:

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[jukie]

Sorry for introducing this bug, working on a fix for it!

[jukie]

/assign @jukie

[arkodg]

thanks @jukie !