diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/10155-proxmox-bugfix.yml b/changelogs/fragments/10155-proxmox-bugfix.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..79dacc4602
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/10155-proxmox-bugfix.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "proxmox - fix crash in module when the used on an existing LXC container with ``state=present`` and ``force=true`` (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.proxmox/pull/91, https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/10155)."
diff --git a/plugins/modules/proxmox.py b/plugins/modules/proxmox.py
index 9dd4b13d5c..dda424910f 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/proxmox.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/proxmox.py
@@ -890,6 +890,7 @@ class ProxmoxLxcAnsible(ProxmoxAnsible):
                 self.module.exit_json(
                     changed=False, vmid=vmid, msg="VM %s already exists." % identifier
                 )
+            identifier = self.format_vm_identifier(vmid, lxc["name"])
             self.module.debug(
                 "VM %s already exists, but we don't update and instead forcefully recreate it."
                 % identifier