The players were not the only ones feeling the heat at the Borneo Sevens.

By mid-afternoon on Sunday's final day, Dr Baskaran Subramam and his staff had treated more than 36 ailing competitors.

"Most of the injuries are soft-tissue ones and not very serious. We've also had a few knee injuries, but again not very serious," Dr Subramam, who practices at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, said. "The worst was a female player who broke her collarbone and we had a concussion earlier today."

Despite the extreme heat, which got up to 44 Celsius on the pitch on Saturday, and equally oppressive humidity, the doctor said dehydration had not been a problem "yet".