diff --git a/ext/wddx/tests/bug48562.phpt b/ext/wddx/tests/bug48562.phpt
index ebd2004e0a2..ee9f271d916 100644
--- a/ext/wddx/tests/bug48562.phpt
+++ b/ext/wddx/tests/bug48562.phpt
@@ -16,6 +16,12 @@ $a['x'] = &$a;
 
 var_dump(wddx_serialize_vars($a));
 
+// replace $a - the recursion detection seems to be causing $a to be not an array here, maybe its internally a pointer
+// replacing $a with a new array() allows this test to still check for 2 things
+//  1. recursion detection in &$a;
+//  2. recursion detection in adding $a to itself and then serializing $a
+// the one thing the test won't check is using $a as an array after doing &$a; which isn't really a wddx problem.
+$a = array();
 $a['x'] = 'foo';
 $a['x'] = $a;