diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/replication/ESIndexLevelReplicationTestCase.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/replication/ESIndexLevelReplicationTestCase.java
index 68373ce529a..0f61f4d02bf 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/replication/ESIndexLevelReplicationTestCase.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/replication/ESIndexLevelReplicationTestCase.java
@@ -209,6 +209,10 @@ public abstract class ESIndexLevelReplicationTestCase extends IndexShardTestCase
             primary.markAsRecovering("store", new RecoveryState(primary.routingEntry(), pNode, null));
             primary.recoverFromStore();
             primary.updateRoutingEntry(ShardRoutingHelper.moveToStarted(primary.routingEntry()));
+            for (final IndexShard replica : replicas) {
+                //replica.markAsRecovering("peer recovery", new RecoveryState(replica.routingEntry(), getDiscoveryNode(replica.routingEntry().currentNodeId()), pNode));
+                recoverReplica(replica);
+            }
             updateAllocationIDsOnPrimary();
         }
 
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/replication/IndexLevelReplicationTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/replication/IndexLevelReplicationTests.java
index 6a347034a0c..3e037bc9c7b 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/replication/IndexLevelReplicationTests.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/replication/IndexLevelReplicationTests.java
@@ -77,7 +77,6 @@ public class IndexLevelReplicationTests extends ESIndexLevelReplicationTestCase
     public void testAppendWhileRecovering() throws Exception {
         try (ReplicationGroup shards = createGroup(0)) {
             shards.startAll();
-            IndexShard replica = shards.addReplica();
             CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(2);
             int numDocs = randomIntBetween(100, 200);
             shards.appendDocs(1);// just append one to the translog so we can assert below
@@ -94,6 +93,7 @@ public class IndexLevelReplicationTests extends ESIndexLevelReplicationTestCase
                 }
             };
             thread.start();
+            IndexShard replica = shards.addReplica();
             Future<Void> future = shards.asyncRecoverReplica(replica, (indexShard, node)
                     -> new RecoveryTarget(indexShard, node, recoveryListener, version -> {
             }) {