The Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov has admitted he recognises one of Russia’s World Cup squad from his own doping programme.

The former director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory has claimed he was responsible for covering up positive tests and is now in witness protection in the United States.

Speaking at the Sports, Politics and Integrity conference in London on Thursday via videolink, Rodchenkov, who obscured his face with a balaclava, said: “I looked through the names of the players involved in the Russian national team squad … I could find only one name [from samples identified by World Anti-Doping Agency]. The others are very much new for me.”

It was not clear whether Rodchenkov was referring to someone in the squad cleared by Fifa or on an earlier list of potential players.

Fifa has said all tests from the World Cup will be sealed and taken to Switzerland. It has also declared Russia’s squad to be free of doping, although investigations into several players unrelated to the tournament were continuing.

Rodchenkov said: “I know it will only be foreign doping control. It should be clean in terms of this one month of competition in Russia, because there are controls and for such a major event Wada has a special team of independent observers.”

Rodchenkov’s revelations about doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics led to the suspension of Russia’s anti-doping agency Rusada, the country’s athletics federation and paralympic committee.

A report commissioned by Wada and compiled by Canadian sports lawyer Richard McLaren in 2016 highlighted a conspiracy to conceal positive drug tests over a five-year period. Football was among more than 30 sports involved.

Rodchenkov said samples from 34 footballers from all levels had been highlighted by McLaren and sent to Fifa, who had sent him a list of some 60 questions which he had answered.

Russia has acknowledged some findings of the McLaren report but has denied the existence of a state-sponsored doping programme.

Rodchenkov suggested the role of agents and others whose livelihoods depended on highly-paid players made doping less likely in football.

“I knew they try to keep them clean because they are afraid any doping case will ruin the career of the entourage of a particular player,” he said. “In contrast to an [Olympic] athlete, any positive case and the entourage survived and continued their bad work.”