In a letter sent to International Federations last month, the WADA Legal Counsel explained that they were aware of "technical malfunctions" which had led to mistaken interpretations of the supplementary data made public alongside the report.

Athletes implicated were not referred to by name in the public report, but were instead decipherable by sets of numerical codes.

But specific names have been disclosed to relevant sporting bodies.

“It has come to our attention that there are, on occasion, certain discrepancies within the evidentiary summaries of athletes that potentially benefited from sample manipulation and the evidence available on the evidence disclosure package website made available by Professor McLaren," explained the letter, which was obtained by the BBC.

“Due to a technical malfunction, WADA has been made aware that certain athlete code references have been misattributed by the team.

"E.g. we have seen situations where an athlete code reference was attributed to a certain athlete in sport X while it should have been attributed to another athlete in sport Y."

This comes as IFs and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) continue to analyse the WADA-commissioned report before taking action against athletes and officials involved, as well as the entire Russian doping apparatus.

Evidence showed that doping samples submitted by up to 1,000 sportsmen and women had been manipulated across Summer, Winter, non-Olympic and Paralympic sport.

Disciplinary proceedings have been opened against 28 Russians alleged to have been part of this programme at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

This letter is inevitably being welcomed in Russia as a suggestion that McLaren's wider conclusions are flawed.

However, despite other concerns having been highlighted with some of the evidence, the report has so far withstood legal scrutiny.

In a statement, WADA described the problems referred to in the letter as “typos” and “minor logistical discrepancies” that were “swiftly resolved”.

“WADA's legal team continues to work with the international federations, assisting them with analysing and interpreting the report and extensive evidence available so that doping cases can be managed in a harmonised manner," a statement added.

"WADA retains full confidence in the evidence-based findings brought forward by Professor McLaren’s investigation."

Previous concerns about the data have been raised by IFs earlier last year when the first part of the Report was released.

Several world governing bodies claimed to be unable to find conclusive evidence of involvement regarding athletes supposedly implicated.

A meeting is due to take place between the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF) and WADA later this month to discuss the evidence.

The IOC have no specific timeline for complete their investigations into wrongdoing at Sochi 2014.

Conclusions are expected to be made public at some stage this year. 

The Russian Paralympic Committee remain suspended from the International Paralympic Committee due to the McLaren Report evidence.

No Russian athletes participated at last September's Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.