diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/transaction/distributed_deadlock_detection.c b/src/backend/distributed/transaction/distributed_deadlock_detection.c
index 176a2c60b..73bb3896c 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/transaction/distributed_deadlock_detection.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/transaction/distributed_deadlock_detection.c
@@ -101,12 +101,29 @@ check_distributed_deadlocks(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 bool
 CheckForDistributedDeadlocks(void)
 {
-	WaitGraph *waitGraph = BuildGlobalWaitGraph();
-	HTAB *adjacencyLists = BuildAdjacencyListsForWaitGraph(waitGraph);
+	WaitGraph *waitGraph = NULL;
+	HTAB *adjacencyLists = NULL;
 	HASH_SEQ_STATUS status;
 	TransactionNode *transactionNode = NULL;
-	int edgeCount = waitGraph->edgeCount;
+	int edgeCount = 0;
 	int localGroupId = GetLocalGroupId();
+	List *workerNodeList = ActiveReadableNodeList();
+
+	/*
+	 * We don't need to do any distributed deadlock checking if there
+	 * are no worker nodes. This might even be problematic for a non-mx
+	 * worker node which has the same group id with its master (i.e., 0),
+	 * which may erroneously decide to kill the deadlocks happening on it.
+	 */
+	if (list_length(workerNodeList) == 0)
+	{
+		return false;
+	}
+
+	waitGraph = BuildGlobalWaitGraph();
+	adjacencyLists = BuildAdjacencyListsForWaitGraph(waitGraph);
+
+	edgeCount = waitGraph->edgeCount;
 
 	/*
 	 * We iterate on transaction nodes and search for deadlocks where the
@@ -135,8 +152,12 @@ CheckForDistributedDeadlocks(void)
 			TransactionNode *youngestTransaction = transactionNode;
 			ListCell *participantTransactionCell = NULL;
 
-			/* there should be at least two transactions to get into a deadlock */
-			Assert(list_length(deadlockPath) > 1);
+			/*
+			 * There should generally be at least two transactions to get into a
+			 * deadlock. However, in case Citus gets into a self-deadlock, we may
+			 * find a deadlock with a single transaction.
+			 */
+			Assert(list_length(deadlockPath) >= 1);
 
 			LogDistributedDeadlockDebugMessage("Distributed deadlock found among the "
 											   "following distributed transactions:");