diff --git a/virtcontainers/utils/virtcontainers-setup.sh b/virtcontainers/utils/virtcontainers-setup.sh
index d6fd0982f3..f3f8be86ee 100755
--- a/virtcontainers/utils/virtcontainers-setup.sh
+++ b/virtcontainers/utils/virtcontainers-setup.sh
@@ -19,11 +19,13 @@ set -e
 
 SCRIPT_PATH=$(dirname $(readlink -f $0))
 
-if [[ -z "$GOPATH" ]]; then
-	echo "This script requires GOPATH to be set. You may need to invoke via 'sudo -E PATH=$PATH ./virtcontainers-setup.sh'"
+if [ ! $(command -v go) ]; then
+	echo "This script requires go to be installed and executable"
 	exit 1
 fi
 
+GOPATH=$(go env "GOPATH")
+
 if [ ! $(command -v docker) ]; then
 	echo "This script requires docker to be installed and executable"
 	exit 1