Paris, March 11 (IANS): Former French minister for health and sports Roselyne Bachelot has accused Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal of doping without providing any evidence.

She based her allegation on the player's absence for months in 2012 due to a knee injury, reports Efe.

Bachelot, who was sports minister between 2007 and 2010 and now participates in a TV programme on D8 station, recalled that everyone knew about the famous injury that kept Nadal out for seven months, indicating that he was absent because he had tested positive for doping.

Bachelot's statements on Nadal came after it was announced on Monday that Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova had tested positive during the Australia Open for taking a banned cardiac drug.

The former minister explained that when tennis players stop competing for several months, they have tested positive for banned drugs, noting that these cases are not regular, but "very often."

Bachelot's accusation was not the first against Nadal by sporting figures in France, as Yannick Noah, current captain of the French team in the Davis Cup, previously hinted at the possibility that the Spanish player may have tested positive for banned drugs.