diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
index c004e3b89c32..a7589552be5f 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
@@ -6284,6 +6284,7 @@ static int select_idle_sibling(struct task_struct *p, int prev, int target)
 	 * pattern is IO completions.
 	 */
 	if (is_per_cpu_kthread(current) &&
+	    in_task() &&
 	    prev == smp_processor_id() &&
 	    this_rq()->nr_running <= 1) {
 		return prev;