go-redis: connection pool timeout

I am using Redis as a caching layer for long running web services. I initialize the connection like so:

var (
    Queues  *redis.Client
    Tracker *redis.Client
)

func Connect(url string) {
    // cut away redis://
    url = url[8:]

    // connect to db #0
    Queues = redis.NewClient(&redis.Options{
        Addr:     url,
        Password: "",
        DB:       0,
    })

    _, err := Queues.Ping().Result()
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    // connect to db #1
    Tracker = redis.NewClient(&redis.Options{
        Addr:     url,
        Password: "",
        DB:       1,
    })

    _, err = Tracker.Ping().Result()
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
}

Abeit in an upcoming patch (sysadmin is deploying a Redis cluster) it will be like so:

var (
    Cluster *redis.ClusterClient
)

func ConnectCluster(cluster, password string) {
    addresses := strings.Split(cluster, ",")
    Cluster = redis.NewClusterClient(&redis.ClusterOptions{
        Addrs: addresses,
        // Password: password,
    })

    _, err := Cluster.Ping().Result()
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
}

The above code gets run once when service boots up in main.go and the *redis.ClusterClient is being used for the lifetime of the process.

I realize there is an iherent problem with this approach, which is manifesting itself in connections timing out after a few days, and crashing the application: redis: connection pool timeout See logs here

Please advise, what would be a proper approach to use go-redis in this situation?