Former QPR defender Ryan Nelsen has been named on the list of players who received a Theraputic Usage Exemption (TUE) at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa by the Russian hacking group Fancy Bears.

The defender was among 25 players including former Liverpool forward Dirk Kuyt and ex-Manchester United pair Gabriel Heinze and Carlos Tevez to have been given the exemption, which allows an athlete to take a prescribed substance that is otherwise prohibited.

Nelsen was granted permission to use the drug prednisone, which is used to combat moderate allergic reactions. Other drugs on the TUE list included salbutamol, commonly used to deal with asthma.

The Russian group also claims that 160 players failed drugs tests in 2015 as they leaked documents, with four coming from UK Anti-Doping.

A Fancy Bears statement read: “Greetings citizens of the world.

“Today Fancy Bears' hack team is publishing the material leaked from various sources related to football.

Included: Carlos Tevez

“Football players and officials unanimously affirm that this kind of sport is free of doping. Our team perceived these numerous claims as a challenge and now we will prove they are lying.

“You can have a look at WADA documents revealing that more than 150 players were caught doping in 2015. The next year this number increased up to 200 athletes.”

Fancy Bears first released hacked medical records in September last year in the wake of the 2016 Olympics.

Russia were banned by the IAAF and unable to compete in the athletics events in Brazil and were blocked from the whole Paralympics that followed due to the World Anti Doping Agency discovering state sponsored doping.

Richard Ings, the former Australian Anti-Doping Agency chief, suggested in an article in the Guardian last year that he "believes the hacking is the Russians taking revenge on Wada for finding state-sponsored doping across many sports in the country."

Nelsen made 21 league appearances for QPR during the 2012/13 season, scoring once.