Source: Daily Mail (Martin Samuel)

There is one aspect of Jamie Carragher’s return to the England squad that does not make sense. What has changed? If he goes to South Africa it will in all likelihood be as the fourth-choice centre half and reserve right back, pretty much the career opportunity that proved so easy to resist when Steve McClaren was manager.

Yes, there is now the lure of the World Cup finals rather than a failing European Championship qualification campaign, yet Carragher was involved in four World Cup matches in Germany in 2006, including two starts, so is not without the experience. Perhaps his club season contains the answer.

Carragher made it plain that he derived his greatest enjoyment from playing for Liverpool, yet this season can hardly have been fulfilling. He may have reviewed the sorry mess of a scrap for a Europa League place combined with disappointments and humiliations in various cups at home and across Europe, and concluded that going to a World Cup with England remains his best chance of experiencing an adrenaline rush.

Something must have altered about the international game for Carragher because, on the face of it, nothing has.

The last of his appearances for England was on June 1, 2007, against Brazil at Wembley, the final straw being that Ledley King was preferred alongside John Terry at centre half. That night Carragher was relegated, once again, to right back.

Much is made of his disparaging comments about international football in his autobiography, never caring for England as he did for Liverpool, but the bottom line was that it was not so much that he gave up on England, but that England gave up on him. In the next game, in Estonia five days later, King kept his place and Wes Brown was selected at right back. Carragher decided enough was enough.

He did not enjoy playing reserve to Terry and Rio Ferdinand, or filling in at full back as was often required — his final competitive start was against Israel in Tel Aviv in that position — but heunderstood the pecking order.

It was only when King returned from another extended injury absence and instantly made two starts that Carragher realised he was not just the understudy but the understudy’s understudy and his disillusionment was overwhelming.

The irony is that, due to injuries, Carragher would have played the majority of games in the rest of the campaign. He would have started ahead of Sol Campbell or Joleon Lescott against Estonia, Russia away and Croatia.

McClaren, in crisis by the end with his top three central defenders missing for the vital final game at Wembley, tried to persuade Carragher to reconsider his retirement but, still smarting and no doubt relishing the payback, the player refused.

Fabio Capello, the current England manager, has no awkward history and that makes it easier for Carragher to come to England’s aid this summer but, personal relationships aside, why is it different now? The first-choice central defenders remain Terry and Ferdinand, King is suffering respite from injury and is pick number three, while having placed Glen Johnson among the best full backs in the world, Capello surely regards him as first choice.

So where is Carragher? Exactly at the point where he made his excuses and left: fourth centre half, second right back. Maybe he thinks the physical fragility of those up the order increases his hope of involvement. Perhaps Capello has privately indicated that there are matches in which Johnson’s place would be vulnerable to a no-nonsense defender, with an astute reading of the game.

Then again, he could be lightly used or not needed in South Africa and must continue to wonder why, to England managers, one game played by King this season seems to be worth almost three of his.

There is one unexplored option which is that Capello, like many others, is not entirely convinced by the form of England’s first-choice central defenders and has hinted to Carragher that the four will begin on level terms when the World Cup squad gathers. It may just be sweet talk but whatever logic Capello’s people are using, it looks to have worked.

Selecting Carragher will be a gamble, though. Not because he lacks the talent — if he had been willing to remain an international footballer, Lescott and Matthew Upson would still be club footballers — but because there is an uneasy past and England supporters have no less pride than those of Liverpool.

They will be divided on his selection after his casual dismissal of England’s importance, that is for sure. There may also be resentment that he has returned for the best of it, without being troubled by the hard yards, trips to places like Minsk and Zagreb.

On a practical level it could be argued that the returning player is not of the same calibre as the one who retired, either.

Carragher in 2007 was faster and tidier than he has been this season. Liverpool’s defenders have missed Xabi Alonso as an outlet and, at 32, Carragher is not getting quicker. He remains, however, in a different class to the player Capello would have relied on, Upson, who has endured a dreadful season with West Ham.

Carragher has also demonstrated on any number of occasions that there are few defenders better in a backs-to-the-wall match against a strong attacking team. He may come into his own when faced with Brazil or Spain, heroically defiant in a way only Terry at his best can be.

The nagging doubt is that Liverpool’s resilience in Europe under Rafael Benitez was once built on Carragher’s substance while, this season, they have exited two competitions against inferior opposition and kept four clean sheets in 14 matches, two against Debrecen of Hungary. This has not been the Liverpool, or Carragher, of old.

What his selection proves beyond doubt is that Capello is a pragmatist. Now the World Cup is a month away, slowly his list of pre-conditions on player selection is dwindling.

He said he wanted fit, committed players, in action regularly for their clubs. One by one, these caveats disappear. If a player is good, like Ferdinand or King, he can be flexible over sustained fitness; if a player gets the best out of Wayne Rooney, like Emile Heskey, he may be able to overlook his absence from the first team; and if a player once spoke dispassionately of England, as Carragher did, he can agree this is water under the bridge.

In the vernacular of the moment, it is clear Capello is now willing to make a big, open and comprehensive offer to get his coalition World Cup squad honed before Tuesday.