Livid Carragher rounds on radio presenter over ‘bottler’ jibe

LIVERPOOL defender Jamie Carragher has launched an astonishing live radio defence of his decision to consider his international future last night.

Phoning in to the talkSPORT radio station, Carragher rounded on presenter Adrian Durham’s accusation that he lacked the stomach to fight for his place in the England side.

“Don’t ever call me a bottler on radio with all those thousands of people listening,” he said.

“There’s that many people he’s (England manager Steve McClaren) played ahead of me. It’s a game of opinions. But when they are all younger than me, they are all going to improve and maybe I won’t.”

He added: “All I can do is play as well as I can for Liverpool. I’ve never really played centre-half for England and to be honest, I’ve never really played that well because I’ve played a lot of the time at full-back,” the 29-year-old said.

“But at centre-half, I don’t think I’ve really played as much as maybe I deserved. But that’s the manager’s choice.”

Staff at the radio station were so taken aback that at first they thought it was a crank caller and asked Carragher to disclose personal details, including his date of birth, before putting him through to Durham.

“I played in the Champions League final. There’s not much more you can do at club football but win it, which we did a couple of years ago. He (McClaren) played Ledley King (against Estonia) who is a top player, but he’s been injured all season, so how would you feel in my situation, what would you do? When John Terry was out, Woodgate played.”

When asked by Mickey Quinn, the stand-in co-presenter and former Coventry City and Newcastle United striker, if he thought that he would regret retiring, Carragher said: “Time will tell. But for me now it’s time to concentrate on my Liverpool career.”

Nor did Carragher believe that there was much chance of him being picked for the World Cup finals in 2010 in South Africa.

“If I’m not getting a game at 29, there’s no chance of me getting a game at 32,” he said. “Every centre half the manager has picked is younger than me.”

Carragher’s public profile is low-key to the point of invisibility — making his decision to ring the radio station and suggest an old-fashioned Scouse ‘straightener’ next time he met the show host — all the more surprising.