diff --git a/modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/netty4/NettyTcpChannel.java b/modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/netty4/NettyTcpChannel.java
index fa9989f7270c4..3d71735a2a8e6 100644
--- a/modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/netty4/NettyTcpChannel.java
+++ b/modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/netty4/NettyTcpChannel.java
@@ -22,13 +22,17 @@
 import io.netty.channel.Channel;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelFuture;
 import io.netty.channel.ChannelOption;
+import io.netty.channel.ChannelPromise;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.message.ParameterizedMessage;
 import org.apache.logging.log4j.util.Supplier;
+import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
 import org.elasticsearch.transport.TcpChannel;
+import org.elasticsearch.transport.TransportException;
 
 import java.net.InetSocketAddress;
+import java.nio.channels.ClosedSelectorException;
 import java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture;
 
 public class NettyTcpChannel implements TcpChannel {
@@ -80,8 +84,8 @@ public InetSocketAddress getLocalAddress() {
 
     @Override
     public void sendMessage(BytesReference reference, ActionListener<Void> listener) {
-        final ChannelFuture future = channel.writeAndFlush(Netty4Utils.toByteBuf(reference));
-        future.addListener(f -> {
+        ChannelPromise writePromise = channel.newPromise();
+        writePromise.addListener(f -> {
             if (f.isSuccess()) {
                 listener.onResponse(null);
             } else {
@@ -91,6 +95,11 @@ public void sendMessage(BytesReference reference, ActionListener<Void> listener)
                 listener.onFailure((Exception) cause);
             }
         });
+        channel.writeAndFlush(Netty4Utils.toByteBuf(reference), writePromise);
+        
+        if (channel.eventLoop().isShutdown()) {
+            listener.onFailure(new TransportException("Cannot send message, event loop is shutting down."));
+        }
     }
 
     public Channel getLowLevelChannel() {