diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/tcl/tcl-requires-check-hook.sh b/pkgs/development/interpreters/tcl/tcl-requires-check-hook.sh
index 0027a0c4b386..9cf55c1f72c2 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/tcl/tcl-requires-check-hook.sh
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/tcl/tcl-requires-check-hook.sh
@@ -5,9 +5,9 @@ tclRequiresCheckPhase () {
     echo "Executing tclRequiresCheckPhase"
 
     if [ -n "$tclRequiresCheck" ]; then
-        echo "Check whether the following packages can be required: $tclRequiresCheck"
+        echo "Check whether the following packages can be required: ${tclRequiresCheck[*]}"
         export TCLLIBPATH="$out/lib $TCLLIBPATH" # Redundant if tcl-package-hook is also used
-        tclsh <<<'exit [catch {foreach req $env(tclRequiresCheck) {package require $req}}]'
+        tclRequiresCheck="${tclRequiresCheck[@]}" tclsh <<<'exit [catch {foreach req $env(tclRequiresCheck) {package require $req}}]'
     fi
 }