Melbourne Victory's floundering A-League season has gone from bad to worse, with star winger Marco Rojas sidelined for six to eight weeks with a fractured fibula.
Rojas, who this season previously suffered a hamstring injury, a fractured nose and concussion, was initially forced off the field in a tackle early into his return against Wellington on Feb. 24.
The 29-year-old didn't recover as well as hoped and had another MRI, which coach Grant Brebner said revealed a "crack" in the New Zealand international's leg.
"Unfortunately for Marco he has that tackle that has fractured his nose, he comes back and 20 minutes into the game [against Wellington] he has a fracture in his leg," Brebner said.
- Stream LIVE games, replays on ESPN+: A-League | W-League
- Lynch: Melbourne City offer Vidosic life after football
"So again, not great for Marco, not great for us. It could be anywhere between six to eight weeks.
"So it's a long time for Marco, it's unfortunate, but we have to move on."
Full-back Adama Traore will return from a hamstring injury against Adelaide United at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night, with Victory determined to make amends after copping a 6-0 derby demolition from Melbourne City.
"As a group we have to take it front-on," Brebner said. "We have to acknowledge that last week wasn't good enough at all.
"We don't want to paper over cracks -- we can't paper over the cracks.
"So we've had a tough week in that respect, but a tough week that we can now use as a determination now for that to never happen again at this football club."
Victory sit bottom of the table with just seven points from 10 games but Brebner said he felt supported by the club's hierarchy despite the dire start to the season.
Last week, chairman Anthony Di Pietro publicly backed Brebner in an interview with Nine Newspapers and pledged further support for the inexperienced head coach.
"I've got great support from everybody at this football club," Brebner said. "I have been here a long time [and] the chairman, the board, they've supported their head coaches and I appreciate that."
Meanwhile Brebner relished the addition of former Western Sydney coach Jean-Paul de Marigny, who was previously Kevin Muscat's assistant at Victory, to his coaching staff for the rest of the season.
"He wants success for this football club, he knows success at this football club," Brebner said.
"So the three of us [Brebner, De Marigny and assistant Steve Kean] will work in harmony and we will make sure that we are getting this club back to where it needs to be."