diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index e22850d..922080d 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: kableExtra
 Type: Package
 Title: Construct Complex Table with 'kable' and Pipe Syntax
-Version: 1.4.0
+Version: 1.4.0.1
 Authors@R: c(
     person('Hao', 'Zhu', email = 'haozhu233@gmail.com', role = c('aut', 'cre'),
     comment = c(ORCID = '0000-0002-3386-6076')),
diff --git a/R/util.R b/R/util.R
index bf56b92..779dd7c 100644
--- a/R/util.R
+++ b/R/util.R
@@ -153,13 +153,25 @@ get_xml_text <- function(xml_node) {
 read_table_data_from_xml <- function(kable_xml) {
   thead <- xml_tpart(kable_xml, "thead")
   tbody <- xml_tpart(kable_xml, "tbody")
+  if (is.null(tbody))
+    stop("table has no body!")
 
   # Header part
-  n_header_rows <- xml2::xml_length(thead)
-  col_headers_xml <- xml2::xml_children(xml2::xml_child(thead, n_header_rows))
-  col_headers <- unlist(lapply(col_headers_xml, get_xml_text))
-  n_cols <- length(col_headers)
-  first_column_as_row_names <- (col_headers[1] == '')
+  if (!is.null(thead)) {
+    n_header_rows <- xml2::xml_length(thead)
+    col_headers_xml <- xml2::xml_children(xml2::xml_child(thead, n_header_rows))
+    col_headers <- unlist(lapply(col_headers_xml, get_xml_text))
+    n_cols <- length(col_headers)
+    first_column_as_row_names <- (col_headers[1] == '')
+  } else {
+    first_column_as_row_names <- FALSE
+    col_headers <- NULL
+    # We have no header, so get the maximum number of columns in the body
+    n_cols <- vapply(xml2::xml_children(tbody),
+                     function(row) length(xml2::xml_children(row)),
+                     1L)
+    n_cols <- max(n_cols)
+  }
 
   # Content part
   filtered_rows <- lapply(xml2::xml_children(tbody), function(row) {
diff --git a/inst/NEWS.md b/inst/NEWS.md
index 34dc11f..980f999 100644
--- a/inst/NEWS.md
+++ b/inst/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+kableExtra 1.4.0.1
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Bug Fixes:
+
+* Fixed a bug in `collapse_rows()`, which failed on tables
+that had no header (#812).
+
+
 kableExtra 1.4.0
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------