diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
index c0801df15f54..10b3bd805ac6 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
@@ -961,7 +961,7 @@ wait_for_tw()
 	local ns=$1
 
 	while [ $time -lt $timeout_ms ]; do
-		local cnt=$(ip netns exec $ns ss -t state time-wait |wc -l)
+		local cnt=$(ip netns exec $ns nstat -as TcpAttemptFails | grep TcpAttemptFails | awk '{print $2}')
 
 		[ "$cnt" = 1 ] && return 1
 		time=$((time + 100))