diff --git a/src/app/Fake.DotNet.Cli/DotNet.fs b/src/app/Fake.DotNet.Cli/DotNet.fs
index c1bf41ec76c..2503fe4c176 100644
--- a/src/app/Fake.DotNet.Cli/DotNet.fs
+++ b/src/app/Fake.DotNet.Cli/DotNet.fs
@@ -66,8 +66,12 @@ module DotNet =
                 let content = File.ReadAllText globalJson.FullName
                 let json = JObject.Parse content
                 let sdk = json.Item("sdk") :?> JObject
-                let version = sdk.Property("version").Value.ToString()
-                Some version
+                match sdk.Property("version") with
+                | null -> None
+                | version ->
+                    let versionValue = version.Value.ToString()
+                    let _ = Version.Parse (versionValue)
+                    Some versionValue
             with exn ->
                 failwithf "Could not parse `sdk.version` from global.json at '%s': %s" globalJson.FullName exn.Message