diff --git a/kubectl-fdb/cmd/exclusion_status.go b/kubectl-fdb/cmd/exclusion_status.go
index ef644ecd9..6c55e0609 100644
--- a/kubectl-fdb/cmd/exclusion_status.go
+++ b/kubectl-fdb/cmd/exclusion_status.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ package cmd
 
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
 	"sort"
 	"time"
 
@@ -81,6 +82,10 @@ func newExclusionStatusCmd(streams genericclioptions.IOStreams) *cobra.Command {
 				return err
 			}
 
+			if len(pods.Items) == 0 {
+				return fmt.Errorf("no running Pods are found for cluster: %s/%s", cluster.Namespace, cluster.Name)
+			}
+
 			// TODO get the pod randomly
 			err = getExclusionStatus(cmd, config, clientSet, pods.Items[0].Name, namespace, ignoreFullyExcluded, interval)
 			if err != nil {