diff --git a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/RecoveryIT.java b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/RecoveryIT.java
index d3bb9780afc..5ad1ce64f1c 100644
--- a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/RecoveryIT.java
+++ b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/RecoveryIT.java
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ import static com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.RandomizedTest.randomAsciiOfLen
 import static org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.UnassignedInfo.INDEX_DELAYED_NODE_LEFT_TIMEOUT_SETTING;
 import static org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.allocation.decider.EnableAllocationDecider.INDEX_ROUTING_ALLOCATION_ENABLE_SETTING;
 import static org.elasticsearch.cluster.routing.allocation.decider.MaxRetryAllocationDecider.SETTING_ALLOCATION_MAX_RETRY;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.either;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasSize;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
@@ -595,7 +596,8 @@ public class RecoveryIT extends AbstractRollingTestCase {
                 assertThat(shards.size(), equalTo(numberOfReplicas + 1));
                 for (Map<String, ?> shard : shards) {
                     assertThat(XContentMapValues.extractValue("shard", shard), equalTo(i));
-                    assertThat(XContentMapValues.extractValue("state", shard), equalTo("STARTED"));
+                    assertThat((String) XContentMapValues.extractValue("state", shard),
+                        either(equalTo("STARTED")).or(equalTo("RELOCATED")));
                     assertThat(XContentMapValues.extractValue("index", shard), equalTo(index));
                 }
             }