Christine Sinclair clarifies response to John Herdman news

James Sharman and Faizal Khamisa discuss the decision by the Canadian Soccer Association to hire John Herdman as the new coach of the men's team and the challenges that he will face going forward.

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….”

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,” Sinclair said in the tweet that had a picture attached of her and Herdman about to hug. “Still shocked and saddened the man who changed soccer in Canada and my life won’t be leading canWNT any longer. There is no doubt he will succeed in this next chapter as well.”

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

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