diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/ios_static_routes.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/ios_static_routes.yaml
index becf97b14..5400b7f41 100644
--- a/changelogs/fragments/ios_static_routes.yaml
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/ios_static_routes.yaml
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 ---
 bugfixes:
-  - ios_static_routes - Fixes an issue where metric_distance is being populated in the forward_router_address attribute.
+  - ios_static_routes - Fix processing of metric_distance as it was wrongly populated under the forward_router_address attribute.
diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/network/ios/rm_templates/static_routes.py b/plugins/module_utils/network/ios/rm_templates/static_routes.py
index 0d80613da..c314447ec 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/network/ios/rm_templates/static_routes.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/network/ios/rm_templates/static_routes.py
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ def __init__(self, lines=None, module=None):
                 (\s(?P<dest>\S+))
                 (\s(?P<netmask>\S+))
                 (\s(?P<interface>(ACR|ATM-ACR|Analysis-Module|AppNav-Compress|AppNav-UnCompress|Async|Auto-Template|BD-VIF|BDI|BVI|Bluetooth|CDMA-Ix|CEM-ACR|CEM-PG|CTunnel|Container|Dialer|EsconPhy|Ethernet-Internal|Fcpa|Filter|Filtergroup|GigabitEthernet|TenGigabitEthernet|IMA-ACR|LongReachEthernet|Loopback|Lspvif|MFR|Multilink|NVI|Null|PROTECTION_GROUP|Port-channel|Portgroup|Pos-channel|SBC|SDH_ACR|SERIAL-ACR|SONET_ACR|SSLVPN-VIF|SYSCLOCK|Serial-PG|Service-Engine|TLS-VIF|Tunnel|VPN|Vif|Vir-cem-ACR|Virtual-PPP|Virtual-TokenRing)\S+))?
-                # Had to add ip validation due to it picking up numbers as forward_router_address and negate just numbers
                 (\s(?P<forward_router_address>(?!multicast|dhcp|global|tag|track|permanent|name)(?!(?<!\d\.)\b\d+\b(?!\.\d))(\d{1,3}(\.\d{1,3}){3}|\S+)))?
                 (\s(?P<distance_metric>\d+))?
                 (\stag\s(?P<tag>\d+))?
diff --git a/tests/unit/modules/network/ios/test_ios_static_routes.py b/tests/unit/modules/network/ios/test_ios_static_routes.py
index 17bd2c2e9..8ddb93101 100644
--- a/tests/unit/modules/network/ios/test_ios_static_routes.py
+++ b/tests/unit/modules/network/ios/test_ios_static_routes.py
@@ -2258,3 +2258,48 @@ def test_ios_static_route_gathered_2(self):
         ]
         result = self.execute_module(changed=False)
         self.assertEqual(sorted(result["gathered"]), sorted(gathered))
+
+    def test_ios_static_route_overridden_2(self):
+        self.execute_show_command.return_value = dedent(
+            """\
+            ip route 198.51.100.0 255.255.255.0 198.51.101.1 175 tag 70 name replaced_route multicast
+            ip route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 GigabitEthernet0/1.22 10.0.0.1 tag 30
+            """,
+        )
+        set_module_args(dict(config=[
+                    {
+                        "address_families": [
+                            {
+                                "afi": "ipv4",
+                                "routes": [
+                                    {
+                                        "next_hops": [
+                                            {
+                                                "forward_router_address": "198.51.101.20",
+                                                "distance_metric": 175,
+                                                "tag": 70,
+                                                "name": "replaced_route",
+                                                "track": 150,
+                                            },
+                                            {
+                                                "forward_router_address": "198.51.101.3",
+                                                "name": "merged_route_3",
+                                            },
+                                        ],
+                                        "dest": "198.51.100.0/24",
+                                    },
+                                ],
+                            },
+                        ],
+                    },
+            ],
+            state="overridden"
+        ))
+        commands = [
+            'ip route 198.51.100.0 255.255.255.0 198.51.101.20 175 tag 70 name replaced_route track 150', 
+            'ip route 198.51.100.0 255.255.255.0 198.51.101.3 name merged_route_3', 
+            'no ip route 198.51.100.0 255.255.255.0 198.51.101.1 175 tag 70 name replaced_route multicast', 
+            'no ip route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 GigabitEthernet0/1.22 10.0.0.1 tag 30'
+        ]
+        result = self.execute_module(changed=True)
+        self.assertEqual(sorted(result["commands"]), sorted(commands))
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