Who is Alina Pop in Coronation Street and why did she leave the ITV soap?

Alina Pop caused quite a stir during her short stint in Coronation Street a few years back.

She arrived into Weatherfield as part of a human trafficking gang but later, she ended up getting in a relationship with Tyrone Dobbs, who had split with his partner Fiz Stape and decided to pursue his romantic connection with Alina.

Fiz was devastated and horrified by Tyrone’s decision, but was unaware that just before Alina left, she found out that she was pregnant with Tyrone’s baby. Before she left, we didn’t know if she kept the baby- but in her final scene, she was shown holding her stomach and ordered a tomato juice, seemingly hinting she was still pregnant.

However, Alina will return in scenes next week – with Ruxandra Porojnicu reprising her role.

“It’s great, it’s great being back with the cast and crew, they are so lovely to work with. I am just so grateful to be a part of this beautiful project again. I was nervous. I was thinking, ‘how is this gonna [work]?’. It was lovely, everyone around me made it so easy. Playing her for two years, I knew her still!” she said of coming back to the show.

“There’s so many new actors, I’ve met quite a few of them and they’re very lovely people. It was interesting for Alina to meet Tyrone’s mother cos she didn’t have the chance before. She has a big personality his mum, so it’s a laugh!”

Ruxandra warned there would be some big scenes ahead between Alina, Fiz and Tyrone. Asked what viewers can expect, she warned: “There’s a lot of tears, I think some fights, a lot of love… I’ll leave that there! It’s too much [for Alina to be back]. She needed time away to heal and she did some healing for sure in those two years, but she needs more time to be away from the Street. But we’ll see where this takes her.”