diff --git a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/SerialReplicationSourceWALReader.java b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/SerialReplicationSourceWALReader.java
index 41d95df28219..2c9e4d37bb0b 100644
--- a/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/SerialReplicationSourceWALReader.java
+++ b/hbase-server/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/regionserver/SerialReplicationSourceWALReader.java
@@ -96,6 +96,11 @@ protected void readWALEntries(WALEntryStream entryStream, WALEntryBatch batch)
             break;
           }
           sleepMultiplier = sleep(sleepMultiplier);
+          // Always make sure to continue/break from the loop after handling the exception.
+          // Otherwise we will drop down below into logic to push the entry,
+          // but since we don't know if the entry can be pushed we may push
+          // the entry out of order, breaking serial replication guarantees.
+          continue;
         }
         // arrive here means we can push the entry, record the last sequence id
         batch.setLastSeqId(Bytes.toString(entry.getKey().getEncodedRegionName()),