Yoon decided not to risk further injury to England's player of the year after she picked up a thigh strain in their 2-1 group game win over Spain, and without their world-class forward Korea were played off the park at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
"It was obviously a blow to our team not to have her in the lineup, but I felt her future was more important," Yoon told the post-match news conference.
"I told Ji this morning that it'd be better for her to rest than to make her injury worse by playing. She was disappointed but ultimately agreed with the decision."
Injuries have hit the Koreans hard in their second World Cup campaign, with Ji's partner in attack, Yeo Min-ji, ruled out just before the start of the tournament due to a knee injury.
Despite losing 3-0 to the exciting French, South Korea will return home pleased with their performance in Canada, where they earned their first ever World Cup win and qualified for the knockout round for the first time.
At their only previous appearance in 2003, the Koreans lost all three games, scored one goal and conceded 11.
"At this tournament, I wanted to lay the groundwork to allow more girls to start playing football," Yoon said.
"It's a shame we couldn't get further into the tournament, but I'd like to give our players kudos for their work."
(Writing by Peter Rutherford in Seoul, Editing by Nick Mulvenney)
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