Christine Sinclair clarifies response to Herdman's move

Canadian captain Christine Sinclair clarified her response to John Herdman leaving the women's national soccer team for the men's squad in a tweet on Tuesday night.

Canadian captain was informed by former coach before announcement went public

The Canadian Press · Posted: Jan 10, 2018 1:14 AM EST | Last Updated: January 10, 2018

Christine Sinclair, left, says John Herdman spoke to her before the announcement from Canada Soccer was made public. (John Woods/Canadian Press)

Canadian captain Christine Sinclair clarified her response to John Herdman leaving the women's national soccer team for the men's squad in a tweet on Tuesday night.

Herdman, who led the Canadian women to back-to-back Olympic bronze medals, took over Canada's men's program on Monday as head coach and men's EXCEL director.

The announcement appeared to surprise even Sinclair, who responded to the move by tweeting "Speechless right now...."

Speechless right now....
—@sincy12

But she followed that with another tweet on Tuesday to clear the air.

Just to clarify, John did speak to me before the announcement was released. Still shocked and saddened the man who changed soccer in Canada and my life won't be leading <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/canWNT?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#canWNT</a> any longer. There is no doubt he will succeed in this next chapter as well. <a href="https://t.co/iRTvGiofKA">pic.twitter.com/iRTvGiofKA</a>
—@sincy12

The 34-year-old Sinclair has appeared in 262 games for Canada, scoring 169 goals and 53 assists.

Herdman, 42, took charge of the Canadian women in August 2011 and lead the program to a record-high fourth in the world rankings after winning bronze at the 2016 Olympics. The women are currently ranked No. 5.