diff --git a/clutter/cogl/cogl/cogl-pipeline-opengl.c b/clutter/cogl/cogl/cogl-pipeline-opengl.c
index 39f7ec82c..8d57bff78 100644
--- a/clutter/cogl/cogl/cogl-pipeline-opengl.c
+++ b/clutter/cogl/cogl/cogl-pipeline-opengl.c
@@ -1165,6 +1165,9 @@ _cogl_pipeline_flush_gl_state (CoglPipeline *pipeline,
       break;
     }
 
+  if (G_UNLIKELY (i >= G_N_ELEMENTS (_cogl_pipeline_backends)))
+    g_warning ("No usable pipeline backend was found!");
+
   /* FIXME: This reference is actually resulting in lots of
    * copy-on-write reparenting because one-shot pipelines end up
    * living for longer than necessary and so any later modification of