diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/test_html.py b/pandas/tests/io/test_html.py
index 6fc080c8d9090..effa5ef4184be 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/test_html.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/test_html.py
@@ -953,6 +953,7 @@ def test_importcheck_thread_safety():
     # see gh-16928
 
     # force import check by reinitalising global vars in html.py
+    pytest.importorskip('lxml')
     reload(pandas.io.html)
 
     filename = os.path.join(DATA_PATH, 'valid_markup.html')