diff --git a/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/ESRestHighLevelClientTestCase.java b/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/ESRestHighLevelClientTestCase.java
index 9217b0b4e55..07c0d818bfa 100644
--- a/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/ESRestHighLevelClientTestCase.java
+++ b/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/ESRestHighLevelClientTestCase.java
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.ThreadContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
+import org.elasticsearch.core.internal.io.IOUtils;
 import org.elasticsearch.ingest.Pipeline;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.ESRestTestCase;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
@@ -53,7 +54,7 @@ public abstract class ESRestHighLevelClientTestCase extends ESRestTestCase {
 
     @AfterClass
     public static void cleanupClient() throws IOException {
-        restHighLevelClient.close();
+        IOUtils.close(restHighLevelClient);
         restHighLevelClient = null;
     }