diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/docker_common.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/docker_common.py
index ee4211385c..0a8abc40fb 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/docker_common.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/docker_common.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ try:
     from docker.tls import TLSConfig
     from docker.constants import DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS, DEFAULT_DOCKER_API_VERSION
     from docker.utils.types import Ulimit, LogConfig
-except ImportError as exc:
+except ImportError, exc:
     HAS_DOCKER_ERROR = str(exc)
     HAS_DOCKER_PY = False