diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/apply/preflight.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/apply/preflight.go
index ba0d8adc50f..55a387927bd 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/apply/preflight.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/apply/preflight.go
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ func runPreflight(c workflow.RunData) error {
 	if err := preflight.RunRootCheckOnly(ignorePreflightErrors); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	if err := preflight.RunUpgradeChecks(ignorePreflightErrors); err != nil {
+	if err := preflight.RunUpgradeChecks(utilsexec.New(), ignorePreflightErrors); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/node/preflight.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/node/preflight.go
index 58d06b7c284..43c35d3ecb2 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/node/preflight.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/cmd/phases/upgrade/node/preflight.go
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ func runPreflight(c workflow.RunData) error {
 	if err := preflight.RunRootCheckOnly(data.IgnorePreflightErrors()); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	if err := preflight.RunUpgradeChecks(data.IgnorePreflightErrors()); err != nil {
+	if err := preflight.RunUpgradeChecks(utilsexec.New(), data.IgnorePreflightErrors()); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
 
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
index 9b14682ea7b..f6cc2c47421 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks.go
@@ -484,7 +484,10 @@ func (subnet HTTPProxyCIDRCheck) Check() (warnings, errorList []error) {
 }
 
 // SystemVerificationCheck defines struct used for running the system verification node check in test/e2e_node/system
-type SystemVerificationCheck struct{}
+type SystemVerificationCheck struct {
+	isUpgrade bool
+	exec      utilsexec.Interface
+}
 
 // Name will return SystemVerification as name for SystemVerificationCheck
 func (SystemVerificationCheck) Name() string {
@@ -493,7 +496,7 @@ func (SystemVerificationCheck) Name() string {
 
 // Check runs all individual checks
 func (sysver SystemVerificationCheck) Check() (warnings, errorList []error) {
-	klog.V(1).Infoln("running all checks")
+	klog.V(1).Infoln("running system verification checks")
 	// Create a buffered writer and choose a quite large value (1M) and suppose the output from the system verification test won't exceed the limit
 	// Run the system verification check, but write to out buffered writer instead of stdout
 	bufw := bufio.NewWriterSize(os.Stdout, 1*1024*1024)
@@ -505,7 +508,18 @@ func (sysver SystemVerificationCheck) Check() (warnings, errorList []error) {
 	var validators = []system.Validator{
 		&system.KernelValidator{Reporter: reporter}}
 
-	validators = addOSValidator(validators, reporter)
+	// Account for the KubeletVersion in the CgroupsValidator added
+	// as part of addOSValidator().
+	kubeletVersion, err := GetKubeletVersion(sysver.exec)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, []error{errors.Wrap(err, "couldn't get kubelet version")}
+	}
+	// During upgrade we want to check the next kubelet MINOR version.
+	// The below approach does not support k8s MAJOR version bumps.
+	if sysver.isUpgrade {
+		kubeletVersion = kubeletVersion.WithMinor(kubeletVersion.Minor() + 1)
+	}
+	validators = addOSValidator(validators, reporter, kubeletVersion.String())
 
 	// Run all validators
 	for _, v := range validators {
@@ -1053,7 +1067,7 @@ func addCommonChecks(execer utilsexec.Interface, k8sVersion string, nodeReg *kub
 	checks = addSwapCheck(checks)
 	checks = addExecChecks(checks, execer, k8sVersion)
 	checks = append(checks,
-		SystemVerificationCheck{},
+		SystemVerificationCheck{isUpgrade: false, exec: execer},
 		HostnameCheck{nodeName: nodeReg.Name},
 		KubeletVersionCheck{KubernetesVersion: k8sVersion, exec: execer},
 		ServiceCheck{Service: "kubelet", CheckIfActive: false},
@@ -1071,9 +1085,9 @@ func RunRootCheckOnly(ignorePreflightErrors sets.Set[string]) error {
 }
 
 // RunUpgradeChecks initializes checks slice of structs and call RunChecks
-func RunUpgradeChecks(ignorePreflightErrors sets.Set[string]) error {
+func RunUpgradeChecks(execer utilsexec.Interface, ignorePreflightErrors sets.Set[string]) error {
 	checks := []Checker{
-		SystemVerificationCheck{},
+		SystemVerificationCheck{isUpgrade: true, exec: execer},
 	}
 
 	return RunChecks(checks, os.Stderr, ignorePreflightErrors)
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
index 3e4bb702caf..e5aa7a90779 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_linux.go
@@ -46,8 +46,11 @@ func (mc MemCheck) Check() (warnings, errorList []error) {
 }
 
 // addOSValidator adds a new OSValidator
-func addOSValidator(validators []system.Validator, reporter *system.StreamReporter) []system.Validator {
-	validators = append(validators, &system.OSValidator{Reporter: reporter}, &system.CgroupsValidator{Reporter: reporter})
+func addOSValidator(validators []system.Validator, reporter *system.StreamReporter, kubeletVersion string) []system.Validator {
+	validators = append(validators,
+		&system.OSValidator{Reporter: reporter},
+		&system.CgroupsValidator{Reporter: reporter, KubeletVersion: kubeletVersion},
+	)
 	return validators
 }
 
diff --git a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_other.go b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_other.go
index d790d7d46f3..9756849ac8c 100644
--- a/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_other.go
+++ b/cmd/kubeadm/app/preflight/checks_other.go
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ import (
 
 // addOSValidator adds a new OSValidator
 // No-op for Darwin (MacOS), Windows.
-func addOSValidator(validators []system.Validator, _ *system.StreamReporter) []system.Validator {
+func addOSValidator(validators []system.Validator, _ *system.StreamReporter, _ string) []system.Validator {
 	return validators
 }