diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlDistributedFailureIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlDistributedFailureIT.java
index d91edf23463..a4dcd382a2e 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlDistributedFailureIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ml/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/integration/MlDistributedFailureIT.java
@@ -245,20 +245,27 @@ public class MlDistributedFailureIT extends BaseMlIntegTestCase {
         // stopping.
         PersistentTasksCustomMetaData tasks = clusterService().state().getMetaData().custom(PersistentTasksCustomMetaData.TYPE);
         PersistentTasksCustomMetaData.PersistentTask<?> task = MlTasks.getDatafeedTask(datafeedId, tasks);
+
+        // It is possible that the datafeed has already detected the job failure and
+        // terminated itself. In this happens there is no persistent task to stop
+        assumeFalse("The datafeed task is null most likely because the datafeed detected the job had failed. " +
+                "This is expected to happen extremely rarely but the test cannot continue in these circumstances.", task == null);
+
         UpdatePersistentTaskStatusAction.Request updatePersistentTaskStatusRequest =
-            new UpdatePersistentTaskStatusAction.Request(task.getId(), task.getAllocationId(), DatafeedState.STOPPING);
+                new UpdatePersistentTaskStatusAction.Request(task.getId(), task.getAllocationId(), DatafeedState.STOPPING);
         PersistentTaskResponse updatePersistentTaskStatusResponse =
-            client().execute(UpdatePersistentTaskStatusAction.INSTANCE, updatePersistentTaskStatusRequest).actionGet();
+                client().execute(UpdatePersistentTaskStatusAction.INSTANCE, updatePersistentTaskStatusRequest).actionGet();
         assertNotNull(updatePersistentTaskStatusResponse.getTask());
 
         // Confirm the datafeed state is now stopping - this may take a while to update in cluster state
         assertBusy(() -> {
             GetDatafeedsStatsAction.Request datafeedStatsRequest = new GetDatafeedsStatsAction.Request(datafeedId);
             GetDatafeedsStatsAction.Response datafeedStatsResponse =
-                client().execute(GetDatafeedsStatsAction.INSTANCE, datafeedStatsRequest).actionGet();
+                    client().execute(GetDatafeedsStatsAction.INSTANCE, datafeedStatsRequest).actionGet();
             assertEquals(DatafeedState.STOPPING, datafeedStatsResponse.getResponse().results().get(0).getDatafeedState());
         });
 
+
         // Stop the node running the failed job/stopping datafeed
         ensureGreen(); // replicas must be assigned, otherwise we could lose a whole index
         internalCluster().stopRandomNode(settings -> jobNode.getName().equals(settings.get("node.name")));