diff --git a/Lib/_threading_local.py b/Lib/_threading_local.py
index 2af3885458b54f..9b16979c7cb418 100644
--- a/Lib/_threading_local.py
+++ b/Lib/_threading_local.py
@@ -36,11 +36,13 @@ def __init__(self):
     def get_dict(self):
         """Return the dict for the current thread. Raises KeyError if none
         defined."""
+        from threading import current_thread
         thread = current_thread()
         return self.dicts[id(thread)][1]
 
     def create_dict(self):
         """Create a new dict for the current thread, and return it."""
+        from threading import current_thread
         localdict = {}
         key = self.key
         thread = current_thread()
@@ -85,6 +87,7 @@ class local:
     def __new__(cls, /, *args, **kw):
         if (args or kw) and (cls.__init__ is object.__init__):
             raise TypeError("Initialization arguments are not supported")
+        from threading import RLock
         self = object.__new__(cls)
         impl = _localimpl()
         impl.localargs = (args, kw)
@@ -115,6 +118,3 @@ def __delattr__(self, name):
                 % self.__class__.__name__)
         with _patch(self):
             return object.__delattr__(self, name)
-
-
-from threading import current_thread, RLock
diff --git a/Lib/threading.py b/Lib/threading.py
index abac31e25886fa..5e54ee2087e73d 100644
--- a/Lib/threading.py
+++ b/Lib/threading.py
@@ -61,13 +61,11 @@
 TIMEOUT_MAX = _thread.TIMEOUT_MAX
 del _thread
 
-# get thread-local implementation, either from the thread
-# module, or from the python fallback
-
-try:
-    from _thread import _local as local
-except ImportError:
-    from _threading_local import local
+# get thread-local implementation from the thread module
+# (fallback to _threading_local is obsolete since Python 3.7 - thread support
+# is always available, and _thread._local always exists; keeping the fallback
+# would reintroduce the circular import with _threading_local)
+from _thread import _local as local
 
 # Support for profile and trace hooks