diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/mysql.py b/plugins/module_utils/mysql.py
index 02cdd68..6d56089 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/mysql.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/mysql.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ __metaclass__ = type
 import os
 
 from ansible.module_utils.six.moves import configparser
+from ansible.module_utils._text import to_native
 
 try:
     import pymysql as mysql_driver
@@ -32,7 +33,10 @@ mysql_driver_fail_msg = 'The PyMySQL (Python 2.7 and Python 3.X) or MySQL-python
 
 
 def parse_from_mysql_config_file(cnf):
-    cp = configparser.ConfigParser()
+    # Default values of comment_prefix is '#' and ';'.
+    # '!' added to prevent a parsing error
+    # when a config file contains !include_dir parameter.
+    cp = configparser.ConfigParser(comment_prefixes=('#', ';', '!'))
     cp.read(cnf)
     return cp
 
@@ -44,16 +48,22 @@ def mysql_connect(module, login_user=None, login_password=None, config_file='',
 
     if config_file and os.path.exists(config_file):
         config['read_default_file'] = config_file
-        cp = parse_from_mysql_config_file(config_file)
-        # Override some commond defaults with values from config file if needed
-        if cp and cp.has_section('client') and config_overrides_defaults:
+
+        if config_overrides_defaults:
             try:
-                module.params['login_host'] = cp.get('client', 'host', fallback=module.params['login_host'])
-                module.params['login_port'] = cp.getint('client', 'port', fallback=module.params['login_port'])
+                cp = parse_from_mysql_config_file(config_file)
             except Exception as e:
-                if "got an unexpected keyword argument 'fallback'" in e.message:
-                    module.fail_json(msg='To use config_overrides_defaults, '
-                                     'it needs Python 3.5+ as the default interpreter on a target host')
+                module.fail_json(msg="Failed to parse %s: %s" % (config_file, to_native(e)))
+
+            # Override some commond defaults with values from config file if needed
+            if cp and cp.has_section('client'):
+                try:
+                    module.params['login_host'] = cp.get('client', 'host', fallback=module.params['login_host'])
+                    module.params['login_port'] = cp.getint('client', 'port', fallback=module.params['login_port'])
+                except Exception as e:
+                    if "got an unexpected keyword argument 'fallback'" in e.message:
+                        module.fail_json(msg='To use config_overrides_defaults, '
+                                             'it needs Python 3.5+ as the default interpreter on a target host')
 
     if ssl_ca is not None or ssl_key is not None or ssl_cert is not None or check_hostname is not None:
         config['ssl'] = {}
diff --git a/tests/integration/targets/test_mysql_db/tasks/config_overrides_defaults.yml b/tests/integration/targets/test_mysql_db/tasks/config_overrides_defaults.yml
index ef4c062..7e858f1 100644
--- a/tests/integration/targets/test_mysql_db/tasks/config_overrides_defaults.yml
+++ b/tests/integration/targets/test_mysql_db/tasks/config_overrides_defaults.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
     config_file: "/root/.my1.cnf"
     fake_port: 9999
     fake_host: "blahblah.local"
+    include_dir: "/root/.my.cnf.d"
 
 - name: Create custom config file
   shell: 'echo "[client]" > {{ config_file }}'
@@ -10,6 +11,15 @@
 - name: Add fake port to config file
   shell: 'echo "port = {{ fake_port }}" >> {{ config_file }}'
 
+- name: Create include_dir
+  file:
+    path: '{{ include_dir }}'
+    state: directory
+    mode: '0777'
+
+- name: Add include_dir
+  shell: 'echo "!include_dir {{ include_dir }}" >> {{ config_file }}'
+
 - name: Create database using fake port to connect to, must fail
   mysql_db:
     login_user: '{{ mysql_user }}'