Toronto FC have traded attacking midfielder Luis Silva to DC United.
The Canadian club have sent the 24-year old to Washington in exchange for allocation money and TFC head coach Ryan Nelsen admits it is not an ideal situation.
"It's really unfortunate, Luis has been so great for Toronto FC, he's been fantastic," Nelsen said Tuesday after training. "But there's an opportunity I think, and the money that we get is extremely valuable.
"I wanted to make it a win for the player and a win for the club. It's not an easy decision by any means and I spent a long time contemplating it and thinking about it.
"We've got young players that have really stepped up and we didn't know that they were going to, which does help. And obviously with potential additions coming in we needed to free up some cap room to improve the squad."
The move has allowed Toronto to free up some space on their payroll as they continue to target a high quality signing which has seen them recently linked with Uruguayan ace Diego Forlan.