diff --git a/core/includes/common.inc b/core/includes/common.inc
index 5d62aad..615d5be 100644
--- a/core/includes/common.inc
+++ b/core/includes/common.inc
@@ -1199,15 +1199,13 @@ function debug($data, $label = NULL, $print_r = TRUE) {
  *   caused the incompatibility.
  *
  * @see \Drupal\Core\Extension\ModuleHandler::parseDependency()
+ * @see \Drupal\Core\Extension\ModuleHandler::checkIncompatibility()
+ *
+ * @deprecated in Drupal 8.1.0 and will be removed before Drupal 9.0.0. Use
+ *   \Drupal\Core\Extension\ModuleHandler::checkIncompatibility() instead.
  */
 function drupal_check_incompatibility($v, $current_version) {
-  if (!empty($v['versions'])) {
-    foreach ($v['versions'] as $required_version) {
-      if ((isset($required_version['op']) && !version_compare($current_version, $required_version['version'], $required_version['op']))) {
-        return $v['original_version'];
-      }
-    }
-  }
+  return \Drupal::moduleHandler()->checkIncompatibility($v, $current_version);
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Extension/ModuleHandler.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Extension/ModuleHandler.php
index 05f1e4f..1c7e70c 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Extension/ModuleHandler.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Extension/ModuleHandler.php
@@ -708,6 +708,30 @@ public static function parseDependency($dependency) {
   }
 
   /**
+   * Checks whether a version is compatible with a given dependency.
+   *
+   * @param $v
+   *   A parsed dependency structure e.g. from ModuleHandler::parseDependency().
+   * @param $current_version
+   *   The version to check against (like 4.2).
+   *
+   * @return
+   *   NULL if compatible, otherwise the original dependency version string that
+   *   caused the incompatibility.
+   *
+   * @see \Drupal\Core\Extension\ModuleHandler::parseDependency()
+   */
+  public static function checkIncompatibility($v, $current_version) {
+    if (!empty($v['versions'])) {
+      foreach ($v['versions'] as $required_version) {
+        if ((isset($required_version['op']) && !version_compare($current_version, $required_version['version'], $required_version['op']))) {
+          return $v['original_version'];
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
    * {@inheritdoc}
    */
   public function getModuleDirectories() {