diff --git a/server/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/elasticsearch/index/seqno/GlobalCheckpointSyncIT.java b/server/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/elasticsearch/index/seqno/GlobalCheckpointSyncIT.java
index 5b7ba93405d61..9bf6f24a9015d 100644
--- a/server/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/elasticsearch/index/seqno/GlobalCheckpointSyncIT.java
+++ b/server/src/internalClusterTest/java/org/elasticsearch/index/seqno/GlobalCheckpointSyncIT.java
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 package org.elasticsearch.index.seqno;
 
+import org.apache.lucene.store.AlreadyClosedException;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.internal.Client;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNodes;
@@ -194,12 +195,21 @@ private void runGlobalCheckpointSyncTest(
                 for (IndexService indexService : indicesService) {
                     for (IndexShard shard : indexService) {
                         if (shard.routingEntry().primary()) {
-                            final SeqNoStats seqNoStats = shard.seqNoStats();
-                            assertThat(
-                                "shard " + shard.routingEntry() + " seq_no [" + seqNoStats + "]",
-                                seqNoStats.getGlobalCheckpoint(),
-                                equalTo(seqNoStats.getMaxSeqNo())
-                            );
+                            try {
+                                final SeqNoStats seqNoStats = shard.seqNoStats();
+                                assertThat(
+                                    "shard " + shard.routingEntry() + " seq_no [" + seqNoStats + "]",
+                                    seqNoStats.getGlobalCheckpoint(),
+                                    equalTo(seqNoStats.getMaxSeqNo())
+                                );
+                            } catch (AlreadyClosedException e) {
+                                logger.error(
+                                    "received unexpected AlreadyClosedException when fetching stats for shard: {}, shard state: {}",
+                                    shard.shardId(),
+                                    shard.state()
+                                );
+                                throw e;
+                            }
                         }
                     }
                 }