In Canada's first game of the Women's World Cup, Captain Christine Sinclair suffered a broken nose when German defender Babett Peter elbowed her in the face early in the second half. She quickly went down and was taken off the pitch. Her nose was crooked and she was in pain but that didn't stop her from playing. She went back on a scored the first goal Germany's conceded since 2003 World Cup.
Tuesday, Sinclair didn't train with her team because she struggled with pain while running.
Yesterday, reports indicated Sinclair may be in jeopardy to play in tomorrow's match.
Reading Anjali Nayar's blog, Morace's stressed Sincy's absence would be a huge blow to the team. She said Christine trained with the team today but it was slow and light, very different from the pace and intensity of play tomorrow. She also said the French coach, Bruno Bini, should use her team's loss as an advantage.
Melissa Tancredi who's also had her fare share of broken noses, spoke out on the situation saying it doesn't look like Sinclair will start .
Doctor's say there's a 40% chance she won't play on Thursday.
Christine herself commented saying it's up to the doctors and if they say she can't play, she won't.
If you doubted Sinclair would be in the starting line up for one second, I'm sorry to have to break it to you but you've been punked.
The match against France will determine who moves on to the second round and who's leaving Germany early. There is no chance in hell, Christine Sinclair, Captain Clutch, the new Chuck Norris, what ever you want to call her, will miss Canada's most important game of this World Cup thus far.
Carolina Morace is smart, I think most people have determined this already and she'll use any advantage she can get - even if that means she has to fabricate a story herself. I strongly believe this is just a rumour stirred up to throw France off their game.
According to French veteran, Sonia Bompastor it won't affect their game plan at all.
"Imagine if we always adapted our tactics to whether a player was injured or not," said Bompastor. "No, we have our game and we play the way we play." -Anjali reported.
The only concern about Christine playing tomorrow is her quality of play. She'll most likely wear a nose protector mask (which will be red), will this limit Christine's vision? Probably not. Sinclair is a world class footballer and as we all witnessed Sunday, she has a high pain tolerance. Proven with real facts tweeted with the hashtag #ChristineSinclair (I highly recommend you get twitter to follow along with the phenomenon), playing with a mask will probably improve her performance.
When will we officially find out if Christine will play? Probably not till an hour before match time. Luckily those who live in North America, it will be in the morning.
The big game will be live on CBC and cbcsports.ca. Coverage begins at 11:30am EST. If you're at work (only acceptable excuse) the replay will be at 7pm EST on Rogers Sportsnet.
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