Emmerdale’s Ross Barton had a less-than-welcome return to the village earlier this week but his arrival has sparked speculation of another character’s return this Christmas

Emmerdale fans were left shocked earlier this week when Ross Barton (Michael Parr) made a dramatic return after a six year absence.

However, viewers were left puzzled during the scenes, questioning the whereabouts of Rebecca White, played by Emily Head. Fans will remember Ross leaving the village with Rebecca in 2018 to start a new life in Liverpool.

Actor Michael first joined the popular ITV soap in 2013, and his character Ross was known for his tumultuous relationships with characters like Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb).

He soon began a romance with Rebecca in 2017, but around that time, she also slept with Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) while Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) was in prison.

Rebecca found out she was pregnant and didn’t know who the biological father of her child was until Robert was confirmed as the dad.

Despite their on-off romance, Ross and Rebecca rekindled their relationship in 2018 following Ross’ horrific acid attack due to mistaken identity,

Later in 2018, Ross left the village with Rebecca and her son Sebastian to start a new life in Liverpool. However, with Ross now back in the village without Rebecca, he later confirmed she died and didn’t have custody of Seb as he wasn’t his biological son.

Now, Emmerdale viewers are predicting Robert Sugden will return in search of his son following Rebecca’s death.

Robert Sugden was married to Aaron but he is currently in prison serving time for manslaughter.

He attacked Lee Posner (Kris Mochrie) following the rape of his sister Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins). The two men clashed when Robert punched Lee leaving him hospitalised, with him later dying from his injuries.

Taking to Reddit, one viewer predicted a Robert Sugden comeback and wrote: “So Rebecca is dead and Seb is living with a relative and Robert doesn’t know. What if once he finds out he decides to finally use the information that Vic gave him to appeal his conviction?

“Not that I think it would legally be possible but it is soap so who cares. With the Aaron/John drama this could get very interesting.”

A second explained “Yeah I’m like 80% convinced he might be the Christmas return and if not he’ll probably be back at some point next year. There’s no reason to kill Rebecca off otherwise. Her and Ross could’ve just split up and that would be that.”

They also pointed out: “With his sentence, he’s probably served about half of it now so they could just say he got out on good behaviour or something.”

A third chimed in: “I have a feeling this is definitely leading to Robert’s return.”

Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7:30pm on ITV and ITVX