diff --git a/apm-agent-plugins/apm-apache-httpclient/apm-apache-httpclient5-plugin/src/main/java/co/elastic/apm/agent/httpclient/v5/helper/ApacheHttpClient5ApiAdapter.java b/apm-agent-plugins/apm-apache-httpclient/apm-apache-httpclient5-plugin/src/main/java/co/elastic/apm/agent/httpclient/v5/helper/ApacheHttpClient5ApiAdapter.java
index 46d63539b94..c9010cfda22 100644
--- a/apm-agent-plugins/apm-apache-httpclient/apm-apache-httpclient5-plugin/src/main/java/co/elastic/apm/agent/httpclient/v5/helper/ApacheHttpClient5ApiAdapter.java
+++ b/apm-agent-plugins/apm-apache-httpclient/apm-apache-httpclient5-plugin/src/main/java/co/elastic/apm/agent/httpclient/v5/helper/ApacheHttpClient5ApiAdapter.java
@@ -70,8 +70,9 @@ public CharSequence getHostName(@Nullable HttpHost httpHost, ClassicHttpRequest
         }
 
         try {
-            return RoutingSupport.determineHost(request)
-                .getHostName();
+            HttpHost host = RoutingSupport.determineHost(request);
+            return host == null ?
+                null : host.getHostName();
         } catch (HttpException e) {
             logger.error("Exception while determining HostName", e);