Ruxandra Porojnicu is reprising the role in the ITV soap after three years away

Coronation Street star Ruxandra Porojnicu has spoken for the first time about Alina Pop’s return to Weatherfield, three years after she left. The actress has been rumoured to be back on the cobbles for weeks and recent spoilers hinted at how she’d come back.

In upcoming scenes this week, Debbie Webster and Rita Tanner break the news to Fiz Dobbs that the leader of a human trafficking group in Romania is going on trial and Alina could be called as a witness.

Now, new spoilers have revealed that Fiz will be floored next week when she bumps into Alina in Fresco’s car park, who explains she’s been called as a witness in a trial.

Whether she tells her husband Tyrone Dobbs that his ex is back in town remains to be seen but he looks set to come face-to-face with her anyway as while at the cab office Cassie Plummer’s eyes widen as she sees the customer’s name on an airport booking.

Taking Steve’s cab, she helps Alina into the car before driving her straight to Coronation Street to see Tyrone, leaving Alina furious to realise she’s been duped.

Sharing why Alina is back now, three years after Tyrone dumped her to reunite with long-term love Fiz after he cheated on her with Alina, Ruxandra told the Manchester Evening News and other press: “Alina is back in Weatherfield because she’s a witness in a trial against traffickers and she feels like she should avoid Tyrone and Fiz!”

Asked if Alina would have come back if it wasn’t for the court case, Ruxandra said: “I think she is curious to see Tyrone and speak with him again because she had feelings for him and he was a very important person in her life at one point. But I would say if it wasn’t for the court case, she would have chosen to not come back at this

But are those feelings still there from Alina towards Tyrone? “I think because she saw herself building a life with him and they went through a lot – a lot of trauma – which bonded them together, I think she still has feelings for him but different types of feelings. I think he’ll always mean something to her but just on a different level.”

The soap star, 31, also teased what’s to come for Alina as she returns to the street and tells how she might be different to when viewers first saw her, telling us: “Time heals and you learn from your experiences and that makes you grow as a person.”

She continued, adding of her delight at her return as Alina: “I don’t know why but I think I might have manifested it because I was thinking it just a month before. I thought, ‘There must be something with this! She might have a baby!’ So I was thinking when it might be the case for her to come back and cause some more drama, stir the pot!

“But when I got the call [to come back] I was very happy because working with everyone, cast and crew, they’re very, very nice people… Everyone was super welcoming.”