This article contains spoilers for tonight’s (Thursday, March 12) Coronation Street, which has not yet aired on TV but is available to watch now on YouTube and ITVX.

Coronation Street may have just confirmed an upcoming death with some subtle foreshadowing – and they could be a victim of Maggie Driscoll (Pauline McLynn).

Viewers will know that Betsy Swain (Sydney Martin) is set to find a body in April, with five potential victims having already been revealed: Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon), Theo Silverton (James Cartwright), Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard), Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances-Brown) and Maggie herself.

However, in tonight’s episode, a casual conversation seemed to hint that a completely different character is set to meet their maker, and it’s none other than Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney).

It was the day of Jim McDonald’s funeral in tonight’s episode, and Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) was understandably on edge, which wasn’t helped by Cassie and Tracy Barlow’s (Kate Ford) constant sniping at each other.

As one of her digs, Tracy asked Cassie if she’d ever wondered who would turn up to her funeral, to which an unbothered Cassie replied that it would be ‘packed to the rafters’.

This seemingly innocent exchange instantly raised our hackles – could it be some clever foreshadowing?

It would probably have passed us by if it weren’t for the fact that Claire Sweeney has already announced her departure from the cobbles, as she leaves the role of Cassie behind.

She is swapping Coronation Street for the stage, where she is set to take on the role of Miss Hannigan in the UK tour of the musical Annie.

A Corrie spokesperson previously told Metro: ‘We wish Claire every success playing Miss Hannigan and congratulate her on being offered a role she has long wanted to play.

‘Cassie will be on the cobbles until the summer during which time she will continue to make her presence felt in Weatherfield leading up to a great exit storyline.’

So, could tonight’s episode be a hint that Cassie is set to be killed off? And if so, how?

Her feud with Tracy has been ongoing, but could it escalate enough for Tracy to turn killer once again and take out her rival for good? Or could someone from her less-than-perfect past crawl out of the woodwork with some sort of vendetta?

It’s possible, but neither of those theories is a frontrunner for me…

Cassie has really turned her life around since arriving on Coronation Street. Having been a drug addict, she managed to kick her habit and has since stepped up as Tyrone Dobbs’ (Alan Halsall) mum and taken her duties as a grandmother seriously.

There was a small blip when Cassie was hired as a carer for Ken Barlow (William Roache) and began to poison him so that he would need to keep her around to look after him.

After she was caught out, things were fraught between her and Steve for a while, but they eventually got their relationship back on track.

Now, Cassie has decided that Steve is the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with. She even made plans to propose, which were unfortunately put on the back burner when Steve learned of Jim’s passing.

In recent weeks, Steve has grown close to newcomer Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker) and even asked him to attend Jim’s funeral, much to Maggie’s horror.

See, Maggie is hiding a major secret: Ben is actually Steve’s half-brother!

Maggie has gone to great lengths in the past to get what she wants, from exposing Eva Price’s (Catherine Tyldesley) secret termination to pushing her husband down the stairs to his death.

It’s safe to say that Ben’s parentage is something Maggie is desperate to keep on the down low, so how far would she be prepared to go to keep someone quiet if they were to get to the truth?

And what if that person were Cassie?

Could Cassie be the one to uncover Maggie’s secret and threaten to tell Steve, leaving her in danger of facing Maggie’s wrath?

Could Cassie be Maggie’s next murder victim?