diff --git a/net/vmw_vsock/vmci_transport.c b/net/vmw_vsock/vmci_transport.c
index c361ce782412..c3d5ab01fba7 100644
--- a/net/vmw_vsock/vmci_transport.c
+++ b/net/vmw_vsock/vmci_transport.c
@@ -1651,6 +1651,10 @@ static void vmci_transport_cleanup(struct work_struct *work)
 
 static void vmci_transport_destruct(struct vsock_sock *vsk)
 {
+	/* transport can be NULL if we hit a failure at init() time */
+	if (!vmci_trans(vsk))
+		return;
+
 	/* Ensure that the detach callback doesn't use the sk/vsk
 	 * we are about to destruct.
 	 */