Christine Sinclair heads into her sixth World Cup already boasting the record for the most international goals scored by any player, male or female.

As if her 190 goals were not impressive enough, Sinclair also became only the second player to score in each of her five World Cups in 2019, joining Brazilian legend Marta with Cristiano Ronaldo later equalling the duo. 

But amazingly, even with 323 caps for Canada, Sinclair is still not the most-capped international player of all time. 

To win that accolade, she will have to make 33 more appearances and surpass the current record of 354 caps, held by the USA’s Kristine Lilly.

And at 40 years old, the forward appears to be going strong. 

Domestically, she is midway through her 11th season for Portland Thorns, who are the defending champions and who currently sit 2nd in the National Women’s Soccer League table.

Sinclair must now turn her attention to setting a new record – Canada’s have never won a medal at a Women’s World Cup. 

This World Cup will be Sinclair’s sixth, and she is set to captain Canada as they try to emulate their gold medal success in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where they swept aside teams including Brazil, the United States and Sweden. 

A leader both on and off the field, Sinclair has also been at the forefront of the Canadian women’s national team’s fight for equal pay. 

Canada’s women’s team announced a strike in February, stating they would not accept a lower level of financial support than their counterpart men’s team.

Speaking to The Canadian Press in February after the strike began, Sinclair said: “Until things move forward, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But we’re not playing.” 

But the strike was short-lived.

Canada Soccer allegedly threatened the women’s team with legal action and demands for millions of dollars in damages if they did not return to football. 

The team reluctantly returned to training, but Sinclair took to social media to say: “To be clear. We are being forced back to work for the short term.

“This is not over. We will continue to fight for everything we deserve and we will win. The SheBelieves is being played in protest.”

Indeed, at the SheBelieves Cup in February, the players all wore purple shirts with the words “Enough is Enough” written across the front in order to voice their protests against Canada Soccer. 

It was announced in March that an interim funding deal between Canada Soccer and the women’s national team had been agreed.

But the final collective bargaining agreement has not yet been signed, meaning Sinclair will lead the Olympic champions to the World Cup against a backdrop of uncertainty. 

Still, Sinclair’s teammate and Canadian goalkeeper told The Canadian Press: “I know that we have a very resilient group, a very gritty group and that group of people — no matter what is happening off the field — will make sure the job gets done on the field.”

Sinclair will be hoping to make her 324th appearance for Canada when they begin their World Cup campaign against Nigeria on Friday 21 July at 3:30am UK time.

You can follow live commentary of the 2023 Women’s World Cup on the talkSPORT network, with our coverage kicking off on Saturday with England vs Haiti on talkSPORT at 10.30am