Emmerdale‘s Jacob Gallagher sparks concern from Manpreet Sharma after a worrying road incident next week.

The ITV soap will be exploring a difficult time for Jacob as he starts work in A&E.

Jacob is put on a medical student placement at the hospital as part of his ongoing training, but he doubts his abilities after a tricky first shift.

His first day is explored in a special standalone episode on January 2, which sees Jacob dealing with situations that are close to home.

These include Jacob facing a potential clue over April Windsor’s disappearance, as well as having to treat Sarah Sugden when she’s admitted to the hospital in a drunken state.

In the aftermath, Jacob feels stressed and overwhelmed over everything that happened.

Driving through the Dales, Jacob feels terrible when he narrowly avoids hitting Manpreet in his car.

Jacob repeatedly apologises to Manpreet for his mistake, but she’s more worried about his obvious signs of exhaustion.

With her own medical background to draw on, will Manpreet convince Jacob to get the help that he needs?

While Jacob has had a quieter few months in the show, Emmerdale producer Sophie Roper recently revealed that it was always the plan to explore this storyline for his character.

Speaking earlier this month about Jacob’s special episode, Roper explained: “When Jacob first embarked on his aspirations of having a medical degree we knew at some point we wanted to show a day in his life.

“In this episode we step away from our usual environs of the village and head to the hospital. This episode takes place entirely on our purpose built hospital set. Accident and Emergency is a place many of our characters end up in, but seldom by choice.

“As the episode unfolds, Jacob will encounter some challenging situations that also affect some of our Emmerdale villagers, pushing Jacob to his limits both professionally and personally.”

For more Emmerdale New Year gossip, check out our collection of 10 spoiler pictures from the episodes.