diff --git a/lib/tokenize.cpp b/lib/tokenize.cpp
index d21484c52..bdbb6e44b 100644
--- a/lib/tokenize.cpp
+++ b/lib/tokenize.cpp
@@ -2041,6 +2041,16 @@ bool Tokenizer::tokenize(std::istream &code,
         }
     }
 
+    // if MACRO
+    for (const Token *tok = _tokens; tok; tok = tok->next())
+    {
+        if (Token::Match(tok, "if|for|while %var% ("))
+        {
+            syntaxError(tok);
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
+
     // Simplify JAVA/C# code
     if (isJavaOrCSharp() && _files[0].find(".java") != std::string::npos)
     {
diff --git a/test/testtokenize.cpp b/test/testtokenize.cpp
index 561b91a95..d252696c3 100644
--- a/test/testtokenize.cpp
+++ b/test/testtokenize.cpp
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ private:
 
         // don't freak out when the syntax is wrong
         TEST_CASE(wrong_syntax);
+        TEST_CASE(wrong_syntax_if_macro);  // #2518 - if MACRO()
 
         TEST_CASE(minus);
 
@@ -522,6 +523,15 @@ private:
         }
     }
 
+    void wrong_syntax_if_macro()
+    {
+        // #2518
+        errout.str("");
+        const std::string code("void f() { if MACRO(); }");
+        tokenizeAndStringify(code.c_str(), false);
+        ASSERT_EQUALS("[test.cpp:1]: (error) syntax error\n", errout.str());
+    }
+
     void minus()
     {
         ASSERT_EQUALS("i = -12", tokenizeAndStringify("i = -12"));