One of Coronation Street 's beloved characters has been slowly disappearing from the main storylines - but it hasn't gone unnoticed by viewers.
For weeks, viewers have noticed that Gary Windass (played by Mickey North) has been less prominent in the ITV soap's storylines.
In fact, the chiselled actor was last seen in Wetherfield at the beginning of the year as he supported Maria Connor (Samia Longchambon) after her traumatic events withGriff Reynolds (Michael Condron).
Before this year, Gary's character was regularly featured within some of the soap's dramatic storylines including loan shark Rick Neelan (Greg Wood) and his daughter Kelly Neelan ( Millie Gibson ).
Yet in recent weeks, Gary has barely featured and Corrie fans were quick to point out his absence.
Writing on reddit, one soap fan pondered: "Does anyone feel like Damon is a replacement for Gary?
"Something I've noticed is that he's been placed with the people Gary used to deal with in the last couple of years and they're basically doing the Gary-Adam-Sarah storyline over with Damon.
"In the past several weeks Gary has been completely irrelevant to stories like Miley and Faye (despite being Faye's sister and being there for the original story) and he's had absolutely nothing to do with Ryan after the acid attack despite having been connected to him previously.
"It's like they're drifting him into the background. Even with Griff going after Maria, Gary didn't do anything at all.
"Plus if he still owns the factory surely he'd have been asking for cash by now or having heard something about the whole Stephen, Carla, and Sarah situation there. He's not doing anything as he had in 2021 when he was called in by Abi to get Corey or when he stopped Harvey's gang.
"I'm not sure if Anna is ever coming back and with Faye leaving maybe they're removing the Windass name from Corrie for good?"
They weren't the only one who thought this either, as other users agreed. Another mused: "Very good points! I feel that the Gary storyline is only ever going to result in one conclusion because surely he can't be seen to actually get away with murder?"
A third added: "I think Damon works as a kind of softer version of Gary, yeah. He’s got a bit more energy to him and I guess for the characters a more likeable personality? Considering he jumped in to stop that Bistro armed robbery…two years ago that 100% would’ve been given to Gary for sure."
Damon is currently in a loved up affair with Sarah Barlow (Tina O'Brien) as well as getting up to his usual bad antics with tricking restaurant owner Nick Tilsley ( Ben Price ) into giving him part ownership of The Bistro.
Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8pm on ITV.
