diff --git a/drivers/soundwire/intel_init.c b/drivers/soundwire/intel_init.c
index 05b726cdfebc5804a7a2608e45341f8dbbf54511..30ce95ec2d703bec11b05b218741a63e7d9f623f 100644
--- a/drivers/soundwire/intel_init.c
+++ b/drivers/soundwire/intel_init.c
@@ -178,6 +178,15 @@ static struct sdw_intel_ctx
 		link->pdev = pdev;
 		link->cdns = platform_get_drvdata(pdev);
 
+		if (!link->cdns) {
+			dev_err(&adev->dev, "failed to get link->cdns\n");
+			/*
+			 * 1 will be subtracted from i in the err label, but we need to call
+			 * intel_link_dev_unregister for this ldev, so plus 1 now
+			 */
+			i++;
+			goto err;
+		}
 		list_add_tail(&link->list, &ctx->link_list);
 		bus = &link->cdns->bus;
 		/* Calculate number of slaves */