diff --git a/src/V3AstNodeOther.h b/src/V3AstNodeOther.h
index 4c72499da..97455091a 100644
--- a/src/V3AstNodeOther.h
+++ b/src/V3AstNodeOther.h
@@ -2651,7 +2651,8 @@ public:
         , m_offset{offset} {}
     ASTGEN_MEMBERS_AstCoverDecl;
     const char* broken() const override {
-        if (m_dataDeclp && m_dataDeclp->m_dataDeclp) {  // Avoid O(n^2) accessing
+        if (m_dataDeclp
+            && (m_dataDeclp == this || m_dataDeclp->m_dataDeclp)) {  // Avoid O(n^2) accessing
             v3fatalSrc("dataDeclp should point to real data, not be a list");
         }
         return nullptr;
diff --git a/src/V3AstNodes.cpp b/src/V3AstNodes.cpp
index 9e1b9afb1..04b70b663 100644
--- a/src/V3AstNodes.cpp
+++ b/src/V3AstNodes.cpp
@@ -2146,8 +2146,15 @@ void AstCoverDecl::dump(std::ostream& str) const {
     if (!page().empty()) str << " page=" << page();
     if (!linescov().empty()) str << " lc=" << linescov();
     if (this->dataDeclNullp()) {
+        static bool s_recursing = false;
         str << " -> ";
-        this->dataDeclNullp()->dump(str);
+        if (s_recursing) {
+            str << "%ErrorRECURSIVE";
+        } else {
+            s_recursing = true;
+            this->dataDeclNullp()->dump(str);
+            s_recursing = false;
+        }
     } else {
         if (binNum()) str << " bin" << std::dec << binNum();
     }