diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkRepositoryFunction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkRepositoryFunction.java
index a46d92d7ded829..1137d9d9bc8c5f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkRepositoryFunction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/bazel/repository/starlark/StarlarkRepositoryFunction.java
@@ -147,7 +147,14 @@ public RepositoryDirectoryValue.Builder fetch(
       Map<String, String> markerData,
       SkyKey key)
       throws RepositoryFunctionException, InterruptedException {
-    if (workerExecutorService == null) {
+    if (workerExecutorService == null
+        || env.inErrorBubblingForSkyFunctionsThatCanFullyRecoverFromErrors()) {
+      // Don't use the worker thread if we're in Skyframe error bubbling. For some reason, using a
+      // worker thread during error bubbling very frequently causes deadlocks on Linux platforms.
+      // The deadlock is rather elusive and this is just the immediate thing that seems to help.
+      // Fortunately, no Skyframe restarts should happen during error bubbling anyway, so this
+      // shouldn't be a performance concern. See https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/21238
+      // for more context.
       return fetchInternal(rule, outputDirectory, directories, env, markerData, key);
     }
     var state = env.getState(RepoFetchingSkyKeyComputeState::new);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/skyframe/SkyFunction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/skyframe/SkyFunction.java
index dd02762ff3c70b..97596273e2b184 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/skyframe/SkyFunction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/skyframe/SkyFunction.java
@@ -380,6 +380,7 @@ default void injectVersionForNonHermeticFunction(Version version) {}
      * may be called upon to transform a lower-level exception. This method can tell it whether to
      * transform a dependency's exception or ignore it and return a value as usual.
      */
+    // TODO: Rename this as it can be called for other purposes.
     boolean inErrorBubblingForSkyFunctionsThatCanFullyRecoverFromErrors();
 
     /**