diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ESIntegTestCase.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ESIntegTestCase.java
index 592f65e31b9..f561dd6df64 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ESIntegTestCase.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ESIntegTestCase.java
@@ -1099,8 +1099,9 @@ public abstract class ESIntegTestCase extends ESTestCase {
                 localClusterState = ClusterState.Builder.fromBytes(localClusterStateBytes, null);
                 final Map<String, Object> localStateMap = convertToMap(localClusterState);
                 final int localClusterStateSize = localClusterState.toString().length();
-                // Check that the non-master node has the same version of the cluster state as the master and that this node didn't disconnect from the master
-                if (masterClusterState.version() == localClusterState.version() && localClusterState.nodes().nodes().containsKey(masterId)) {
+                // Check that the non-master node has the same version of the cluster state as the master and
+                // that the master node matches the master (otherwise there is no requirement for the cluster state to match)
+                if (masterClusterState.version() == localClusterState.version() && masterId.equals(localClusterState.nodes().masterNodeId())) {
                     try {
                         assertEquals("clusterstate UUID does not match", masterClusterState.stateUUID(), localClusterState.stateUUID());
                         // We cannot compare serialization bytes since serialization order of maps is not guaranteed