diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.2.2.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.2.2.rst
index c5825d0881515..51535501f5c1b 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.2.2.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.2.2.rst
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ including other versions of pandas.
 
 Fixed regressions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+- Fixed regression in :func:`read_excel` that caused it to raise ``AttributeError`` when checking version of older xlrd versions (:issue:`38955`)
 - Fixed regression in :class:`DataFrame` constructor reordering element when construction from datetime ndarray with dtype not ``"datetime64[ns]"`` (:issue:`39422`)
 - Fixed regression in :meth:`~DataFrame.to_pickle` failing to create bz2/xz compressed pickle files with ``protocol=5`` (:issue:`39002`)
 - Fixed regression in :func:`pandas.testing.assert_series_equal` and :func:`pandas.testing.assert_frame_equal` always raising ``AssertionError`` when comparing extension dtypes (:issue:`39410`)
diff --git a/pandas/compat/_optional.py b/pandas/compat/_optional.py
index 6110ca794e2c2..35c7b6547431f 100644
--- a/pandas/compat/_optional.py
+++ b/pandas/compat/_optional.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
 }
 
 
-def _get_version(module: types.ModuleType) -> str:
+def get_version(module: types.ModuleType) -> str:
     version = getattr(module, "__version__", None)
     if version is None:
         # xlrd uses a capitalized attribute name
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ def import_optional_dependency(
         module_to_get = module
     minimum_version = min_version if min_version is not None else VERSIONS.get(parent)
     if minimum_version:
-        version = _get_version(module_to_get)
+        version = get_version(module_to_get)
         if distutils.version.LooseVersion(version) < minimum_version:
             msg = (
                 f"Pandas requires version '{minimum_version}' or newer of '{parent}' "
diff --git a/pandas/io/excel/_base.py b/pandas/io/excel/_base.py
index 11974d25d72d3..ab0cdd19b4acf 100644
--- a/pandas/io/excel/_base.py
+++ b/pandas/io/excel/_base.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 
 from pandas._libs.parsers import STR_NA_VALUES
 from pandas._typing import Buffer, DtypeArg, FilePathOrBuffer, StorageOptions
-from pandas.compat._optional import import_optional_dependency
+from pandas.compat._optional import get_version, import_optional_dependency
 from pandas.errors import EmptyDataError
 from pandas.util._decorators import Appender, deprecate_nonkeyword_arguments, doc
 
@@ -1056,7 +1056,7 @@ def __init__(
         else:
             import xlrd
 
-            xlrd_version = LooseVersion(xlrd.__version__)
+            xlrd_version = LooseVersion(get_version(xlrd))
 
         if xlrd_version is not None and isinstance(path_or_buffer, xlrd.Book):
             ext = "xls"
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/excel/__init__.py b/pandas/tests/io/excel/__init__.py
index 7df035e6da17a..b1038f0314f41 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/excel/__init__.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/excel/__init__.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 import pytest
 
-from pandas.compat._optional import import_optional_dependency
+from pandas.compat._optional import get_version, import_optional_dependency
 
 pytestmark = [
     pytest.mark.filterwarnings(
@@ -29,4 +29,4 @@
 else:
     import xlrd
 
-    xlrd_version = LooseVersion(xlrd.__version__)
+    xlrd_version = LooseVersion(get_version(xlrd))
diff --git a/pandas/util/_print_versions.py b/pandas/util/_print_versions.py
index 381dab4e3ce45..ae3c8c98f8dc1 100644
--- a/pandas/util/_print_versions.py
+++ b/pandas/util/_print_versions.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from typing import Dict, Optional, Union
 
 from pandas._typing import JSONSerializable
-from pandas.compat._optional import VERSIONS, _get_version, import_optional_dependency
+from pandas.compat._optional import VERSIONS, get_version, import_optional_dependency
 
 
 def _get_commit_hash() -> Optional[str]:
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ def _get_dependency_info() -> Dict[str, JSONSerializable]:
     result: Dict[str, JSONSerializable] = {}
     for modname in deps:
         mod = import_optional_dependency(modname, errors="ignore")
-        result[modname] = _get_version(mod) if mod else None
+        result[modname] = get_version(mod) if mod else None
     return result
 
 
diff --git a/scripts/validate_unwanted_patterns.py b/scripts/validate_unwanted_patterns.py
index 9c58a55cb907e..8f48d518a737b 100755
--- a/scripts/validate_unwanted_patterns.py
+++ b/scripts/validate_unwanted_patterns.py
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@
     "_doc_template",
     "_agg_template",
     "_pipe_template",
-    "_get_version",
     "__main__",
     "_transform_template",
     "_flex_comp_doc_FRAME",