Melbourne have provided an update to Steven May's condition after he was hospitalised as a result of a heavy collision with Hawthorn's Mabior Chol on Saturday.

After initial fears of a lengthy period away from play, the Dees confirmed on Monday May suffered two rib and one small transverse process spinal fractures in the incident.

There were reports of greater injuries on Sunday.

Melbourne have ruled May out of Saturday's away clash with Port Adelaide, but are keeping the door open for a return to face the Crows during Gather Round the following week.

"Steven was obviously in a lot of pain following that heavy contact in the second quarter of Saturday's game, so we sent him off to hospital for some scans," Dees general manager of AFL performance Alan Richardson said.

"The results of these showed two fractures to his ribs, and a small transverse process fracture.

"At this stage, Steven will miss this week's match against Port Adelaide. We will continue to monitor his pain and function following that, in the lead up to our Round 4 game."

Fellow defender Jake Lever also avoided any serious structural damage to his knee after also being subbed out of Saturday's game.

At Richmond, Maurice Rioli jr is expected to bounce back quickly from a back twinge which saw him ruled out of Sunday's loss to Port very close to the opening bounce.

In his post-match press conference, Tigers coach Adam Yze said Rioli made the call to sit out after tweaking his back in a tackling drill during warm ups.

"I felt sorry for the kid because he's actually in pretty good form, puts a lot of pressure, and he's the type of guy that we love out there. So that was unlucky for him," Yze said.

Yze said Rioli was okay, walking around and frustrated at being ruled out during the loss and will be "fit and ready to go" for next Sunday's game with the Swans.