diff --git a/tasks/mirrorlist.yml b/tasks/mirrorlist.yml
index 5bfd97a019..bde01b47bd 100644
--- a/tasks/mirrorlist.yml
+++ b/tasks/mirrorlist.yml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 
 # mirrormanager user ssh key(s)
 - name: add authorized_keys for mirrormanager
-  authorized_key: key=$files/mirrorlist/mm-authorized_key user=mirrormanager state=present
+  authorized_key: key='$FILE($files/mirrorlist/mm-authorized_key)' user=mirrormanager state=present
 
 # install mirrorlist-server.conf apache config
 - name: mirrorlist-server apache conf