diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 9b073905..0eb16cfe 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ description = "Pytest plugin for Celery"
 homepage = "https://github.com/celery/pytest-celery"
 license = "BSD"
 name = "pytest-celery"
-version = "1.0.0a5"
+version = "1.0.0a6"
 
 [tool.poetry_bumpversion.file."src/pytest_celery/__init__.py"]
 
diff --git a/src/pytest_celery/__init__.py b/src/pytest_celery/__init__.py
index 1608b589..bc42b132 100644
--- a/src/pytest_celery/__init__.py
+++ b/src/pytest_celery/__init__.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 # flake8: noqa
 
 
-__version__ = "1.0.0a5"  # pragma: no cover
+__version__ = "1.0.0a6"  # pragma: no cover
 
 
 import re
@@ -49,7 +49,11 @@
 
 # bumpversion can only search for {current_version}
 # so we have to parse the version here.
-_temp = re.match(r"(\d+)\.(\d+).(\d+)(.+)?", __version__).groups()  # type: ignore
+match = re.match(r"(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)(.+)?", __version__)
+if match:
+    _temp = match.groups()
+else:
+    raise ValueError(f"The version string '{__version__}' does not match the expected pattern.")
 VERSION = version_info = version_info_t(int(_temp[0]), int(_temp[1]), int(_temp[2]), _temp[3] or "", "")
 del _temp
 del re