throwExceptionIfDeadLineIsReached

Hello, we have recently updated our application to Exoplayer 2.18.4 and since then, our apps have started crashing with the following exception:

java.lang.VerifyError: kotlin/UInt$$ExternalSyntheticBackport0
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.DefaultAudioSink$PendingExceptionHolder.throwExceptionIfDeadlineIsReached(DefaultAudioSink.java:2259)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.DefaultAudioSink.handleBuffer(DefaultAudioSink.java:933)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.audio.MediaCodecAudioRenderer.processOutputBuffer(MediaCodecAudioRenderer.java:706)        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.drainOutputBuffer(MediaCodecRenderer.java:1905)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.mediacodec.MediaCodecRenderer.render(MediaCodecRenderer.java:792)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.doSomeWork(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:994)
        at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:495)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
        at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:60)

We ran into this error while doing monkey tests, and I can't seem to replicate this issue by hand, so I am not entirely sure when exactly it occurs. I don't understand why this happens. Do you have any ideas on why this exception occurs and offer any potential fixes? The frequency of these crashes makes them hard to ignore. Thanks in advance.