Melbourne key defender Steven May faces a nervous wait as the Match Review Officer looks into his bump on Carlton forward Francis Evans, which left the 23-year-old with a bloodied nose and concussion on Saturday night.

Both May and Evans were hunting an uncontested ball mid-way through the third quarter when the collision between the two players occurred. After Evans arrived at the ball first, May continued his run and made high contact with Evans on the way through. Evans was subbed out of the game shortly after.

Melbourne senior coach Simon Goodwin has defended his star backman, labelling his intent to win the ball as "clear", with a split-second reaction the difference between Evans collecting the ball and May's contact with the forward.

"It's a tough one," Goodwin said post-game.

"Steve's whole intent was to get the ball clearly. You can see it, even if you slow it down, his whole intent is to win the ball.

"It's really unfortunate when you get a concussion in the game and sometimes you can be concussed without being reported. This is going to be one of those ones where we will have to go through the process. If you look at his pure intent, it was purely for the ball and it was unfortunate."

Goodwin reported that May felt as if he had little room to avoid Evans, after being quizzed on his emotions following the worrying clash.

"[May] had to come off for the blood rule and he just said, 'I didn't even have any other option, I was going for the ball.' Those were his comments as he came to the bench, he was just as surprised as anyone."

Goodwin also noted that May suffered a concussion himself later in the contest via what he deemed to be a "similar" football act, with Tom De Koning's kneeing May in the head while taking a pivotal high-flying mark in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

"In the end, it was similar with Steven as he walked away with a concussion himself late in the game in a marking contest," Goodwin said.

"There is times in the game where you suffer a concussion and unfortunately for both teams, they had one."

Blues senior coach Michael Voss was proud of his young forward's courageous approach, which had seen him play one of his better games of the season, recording eight disposals, four tackles and a goal before the incident.

"For Frankie to hold his line with a pretty strong man coming the other way was a pretty important moment in the game," Voss said post-game.

"Clearly it's going to get looked at. Both players were in line with the ball, seemed to be attacking. If I'm being brutally honest, and both were making a play at the ball, maybe one person was one step late, which obviously then the incident happens.

"I don't tend to read too much into it in this point of time, [we'll] let the tribunal take care of it. It's up to them to be able to adjudicate what they think is fair. We feel like we've been one end of [the Tribunal] this week with Ben Camporeale's [suspension] so I'll be interested to see how they look at it."

The Demons eight-point loss to Carlton extends their form slump, now sitting 13th on the ladder with a record of 6-12. Melbourne will play St Kilda next Sunday at Marvel Stadium and will be without May, regardless of whether the MRO hands him a suspension.