Matt Le Tissier has said he experienced naked massages during his younger days at Southampton that made him feel "very uncomfortable".

Speaking on the day the Football Association widened its inquiry into historic sexual abuse in the game, the former England international said what he witnessed was "disgusting".

Speaking to the BBC, Le Tissier said of experiences: "Everyone was kind of naked, got thrown on this bed. It was a very, very quick massage. It was uncomfortable. It wasn't something I was ever used to, growing up.

"Even at school you were shy about your body at that age and didn't even undress in front of other people. I remember feeling very uncomfortable at the time.

"It's very, very wrong for a start. You look back and think it was wrong but as a young boy I saw everybody else doing it and thought, 'Is this normal?'. Looking back, it's disgusting. What went on is not normal behaviour.

"When you hear the stories of naked soapy massages, hairy bum competitions... you look back at it now and think, 'Hang on, what was going on?'."

Asked what he wanted to happen now, Le Tissier, who spent his entire career with the Saints, added: "I think the bravery of the boys that have come out would encourage everyone else that experienced those kinds of things, and the people who were the perpetrators of these of things get brought to justice.

"It's a long time ago. It's just incredible that they were able to get away with it for so long."

Southampton said last week that the club had contacted police after receiving information relating to historical child abuse, adding that they were "committed to working together" with the police to investigate the allegations.

Le Tissier's words come on the day Damian Collins, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, backed the FA's decision to widen its inquiry but said the final report must be made public.

The governing body earlier on Tuesday announced it was dropping the barrister it initially asked to lead the review, Kate Gallafent QC, and giving it to Clive Sheldon QC instead.

In a statement, the FA said this was in "light of the increased scope of the review", which has been prompted by an avalanche of allegations about sexual abuse in football dating back to the 1970s, and the decision had been made "with respect to her other professional commitments".

But Gallafent's appointment had also attracted some criticism because of a perceived lack of experience in handling child abuse cases of this size and the fact she has represented the FA in the past.

Speaking to Press Association Sport, Collins said: "I have more confidence now that we have a degree of separation between the FA and the QC leading the review, so I welcome that.

"I am also pleased to see that Sheldon appears to have the power to go into clubs but there are still a few areas that require more clarification.

"First, does he have the power to go wherever the FA has jurisdiction? He should be able to amend the scope of his inquiries if he needs to.

"And second, the only grounds for not publishing his report in full should be that it might prejudice a criminal investigation."

Referring to the FIFA report into the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which has still not been published in full, the Conservative MP added: "We can't have another (Michael) Garcia situation, where the FA board edits a report simply because they don't like it."

The FA's announcement of Sheldon's terms of reference said he would start immediately and a decision on whether to widen his inquiry would be made "by mutual agreement" between him and the FA.

On the issue of publication, it said "the FA wishes any reports to be transparent and to be published" but the review will "liaise with the FA" and other relevant bodies before publication.

Sheldon, himself, was described as a specialist in high-profile cases involving public figures and his previous work includes investigations into child protection at major institutions.

The formal purpose of his inquiry will be to uncover what was known about allegations of sexual abuse within youth football, and the steps the FA took to address those allegations, from the 1970s through to 2005.

That end point may seem arbitrary but it has been chosen as that was when an Independent Football Commission report gave the game a relatively clean bill of health for the safeguarding policies it had introduced since the late 1990s.

It is widely acknowledged the FA, the leagues and clubs made considerable progress in terms of child protection in the years just before 2005 but it has also become glaringly obvious that they were starting from a very low base.

Shortly after the FA officially started its response to what its chairman Greg Clarke has already referred to as perhaps the "biggest crisis" to face the game, another club issued a statement to say it was investigating claims of sexual abuse.

QPR announced they were taking allegations about Chris Gieler, who died in 2004, "very seriously". He worked for the club as a youth coach and scout for 30 years.

And then the Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed it has become the latest force to launch investigations into fresh allegations of abuse in football, bringing the total number of UK police forces now looking at this area to 21.

With the most recent figures, now a few days old, for the scale of the scandal being 55 different clubs and 350 potential victims, there are growing calls for a much wider public inquiry.

That was the message on Monday at the launch of the Offside Trust, an independent campaign set up by three former footballers who were victims of abuse at the beginning of their careers.