Former Professional Footballers' Association chairman Clarke Carlisle has criticised the media for "unfair" coverage of Raheem Sterling's gun tattoo.

Photographs of the Manchester City winger taking part in a training session with England this week showed an assault rifle inked on his lower right leg.

The tattoo has been dubbed inappropriate by anti-gun groups and some tabloid newspapers, but Sterling explained on social media that the image is part of an unfinished design paying tribute to his late father, who died in a shooting.

"People seem to be looking for any reason to be outraged these days but who are we to dictate what grief should look like?" Carlisle told The Guardian. "This is a young man who lost his father at a very young age and that symbol is a sign of something that is very important.

"He's reappropriated it and given it a dual meaning to give him a catalyst to further himself and his professional career. How can anyone say that's outrageous? I think he's done a magnificent thing in very tough times. Let the man grieve in his way. Every credit to him – people need to keep their noses out of his private business.

"A young kid will look at it and they will ask – if they ask they will hear the positive message behind it. I don't think it's any coincidence it's just before the World Cup – our media seem to want to totally derail any possibility of going into the tournament with any positive focus. I don't know why that is. Why not let the guy go about his work in peace?

"The way they have gone about this is totally unfair – they've taken something that is personal to him and compared it to another situation that is tragic to someone else. The media has chosen to connect those two things together and that's not fair.

"The sad thing is that even if people choose to ignore it, the seed has been planted. This kind of thing happens all the time – it plants a seed for people to water and grasp at should anything go wrong on a professional basis. It's ridiculous because as soon as he does anything wrong in Russia he will be lambasted."

The Football Association, Man City teammate Danilo and ex-England striker Gary Lineker were also among those to offer their backing to Sterling.