Coach Frank Farina said the midfielder is expected to spend six-to-eight weeks on the sidelines with a medial collateral ligament injury in his right knee.

As for the match itself, the Roar boss felt his team had paid the price for handing their hosts too many cheap opportunities to cause them trouble.

Farina conceded the better side took the points on the day.

"I think we just invited Melbourne to come at us," Farina said. "We gave away too many balls and too many silly free kicks.

"Particularly in the second half we gave away too many free kicks around our box and eventually they punished us for it."

Henrique, who played with Dutch giants Feyenoord as recently as 2003, was eventually substituted in the 59th minute and Farina confirmed the seriousness of his injury post-match.

"Unfortunately we lost Henrique, that was the other negative," Farina said.

"He will be out for six to eight weeks and that was the other disappointing part of the tackle (by Adrian Leijer)."

However Farina accepted the decision by the referee not to send Leijer off for the tackle on Henrique, which meant he stayed on the field to score the winning goal and his first goal for Melbourne in four seasons and his first since re-joining the club from English Premier League team Fulham earlier this season.

"The only problem I have (with Leijer staying on the pitch and escaping a second yellow card for the tackle on Henrique) is he scores the winning goal but then maybe someone else would have scored the winning goal anyway," Farina said.

"He (Leijer) had been booked already but I thought the referee had a great game to be honest."