Mark Salling, who is returning for the sixth and final season of Fox's Glee, recently spoke about being without the late Cory Monteith.

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Salling, who plays Puck on Glee, spoke with People recently about what it's been like returning to the show full time without Monteith, who played star quarterback Finn Hudson.

"Cory Monteith was a great leader as a character and person in real life," Salling said of the actor, who died at 31 in 2013. "It's a big, obvious hole. I still think about him all the time."

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Monteith's character was not too far off from how he was in real life, according to Salling.

"He was kind of like the quarterback of the show, which sounds cliché because the [tribute] episode was called that, but he was kind of like that in real life," he noted.

Now that Salling is back on set with his costars, he admitted that "It's like we never left . . . I've been through so much with some of these cast members. Traveling the world, international tours ... it's really like family."

The ride ends on Friday, March 20, when the series finale of Glee airs.

"I'm going to miss it," he said. "Absolutely."

Many of the show's characters will be back in McKinley High for the final season, bringing things full circle for where the show started, before everyone went their separate ways.

Glee returns for its sixth and final season on Friday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

Tags: Glee television fox