Carragher ready to play any role for England

Jamie Carragher is ready to play any role asked of him by England coach Fabio Capello if it helps his team make a successful challenge for the World Cup.

Carragher turned his back on England three years ago after growing disillusioned at his lack of playing time under Sven-Goran Eriksson and then Steve McClaren.

The Liverpool centre-back had been inspirational in his club’s runs to the 2005 and 2007 Champions League finals and felt he deserved a regular place in the national team.

Instead he was forced to play second fiddle to John Terry and Rio Ferdinand, with only occasional outings out of position at right-back.

Inevitably Carragher began to grow tired of spending days away from home on international duty with little reward at the end of it and walked away, seemingly for good.

However, injuries to the likes of Wes Brown and Joleon Lescott in the build-up to the World Cup convinced Capello to try to persuade Carragher to change his mind.

The 32-year-old, motivated by the chance to work with Capello and erase a miserable season with Liverpool from his mind, eventually accepted the offer and made his first England appearance since 2007 as a sustitute in Monday’s friendly win over Mexico.

In a marked change of attitude from the past, Carragher, who once claimed losing with England meant much less to him than a Liverpool defeat, is now prepared to do anything to help his country in South Africa.

“Centre-back is my best position. I think everyone is aware of that,” Carragher said. “But if you look at the squad maybe the manager does see me playing a different position, which is something I will have to adapt to.

“Basically, I will just do whatever the manager says. It’s up to the manager.

“There is another game against Japan and another week’s training. After that we will see.”

Carragher’s versatility means he is almost certain to be named in England’s 23-man squad for the finals and few fans will complain after he was given a warm welcome at Wembley this week.

There seemed no antagonism either from the notoriously fickle Wembley crowd and Carragher was delighted to be back.

“I thank the crowd for their reception,” Carragher said. “As I said before the game I could understand it if they weren’t too happy with my situation but I think they just wanted to get behind the team before the World Cup and send the squad out in good spirits.”

Having made his debut in 1999, Carragher has experienced a number of England managers and clearly has not been too impressed with some of the decisions that have been made.

There are no such worries over Capello, who seems to have generated a universal view that he will get more out of this set of players than any of his predecessors.

“Every manager has his own ideas and different ways of doing things,” Carragher said.

“But Fabio’s track record speaks for itself. Whatever the manager has done through his career it has proved successful. Hopefully it will be that way again.”