diff --git a/net/vmw_vsock/vmci_transport.c b/net/vmw_vsock/vmci_transport.c
index d24773552b64..217810674c35 100644
--- a/net/vmw_vsock/vmci_transport.c
+++ b/net/vmw_vsock/vmci_transport.c
@@ -1656,6 +1656,10 @@ 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.
 	 */