It is easy enough for him to be good-humoured since he is no England discard. A 33rd appearance will come his way at the Ramat Gan stadium and when he says that "hopefully I can get a few more" he must have the 50-cap landmark in mind. He is expected to face Israel at left-back, with Phil Neville perhaps earmarked for the right, where he has been used regularly by Everton.
The enforced versatility of Carragher reflects not just the calibre of the other candidates but also the fact that he settled in that post comparatively late. The opportunity to establish himself in the middle of the Liverpool defence came in 2004, when he was 26, as he took over from Stephane Henchoz to partner Sami Hyypia.
There is no resentment over his status as a utility player with England and he can get effusive about the men who are the automatic choice at the heart of the back four. "You can't really argue," he said. "For me John Terry is the best centre-half in the world and Rio Ferdinand is a £30m defender, so I'm in no position to complain. I hope I can learn from them. I'm always trying to improve."
It was not obligatory for Carragher to launch into a tribute quite as enthusiastic as that and there is no cause to believe that versatility has been his curse, because his capacity to fill the left-back slot allowed him to be prominent as Liverpool took the League Cup, FA Cup and Uefa Cup in 2001. As recently as last summer, too, he featured in four of England's five fixtures in the World Cup, starting two of them while deputising for the injured Gary Neville.
Despite the apparent flexibility, it is no simple task to work the left flank, even if can stick to a relatively conservative approach against Israel while Aaron Lennon inspires dashing attacks ahead of him. "At the World Cup you could tell the difference with trying to get up and down the pitch," he said. "Centre-back takes more out of you mentally than physically."
There may well be a demand for conservatism in Tel Aviv and Carragher is far from gung-ho in his view of the Euro 2008 qualifier. "We don't want to lose," he said. "If we win we're not definitely qualified. We don't want to put on pressure by saying that if we lose that's the end. There's still seven games to be played after it. It's big but it's not the be-all and end-all."
Even so the significance of the fixture is not lost on him. He likes to draw a parallel with the circumstances of his club's win at Camp Nou. "Before Barcelona, people were saying that Liverpool's season may be over. It's those type of matches that you're in the game for."
By the same token he expects that England's uncertain position in Group E will "give us a boost" at kick-off on Saturday. "Israel away was always going to be difficult. Obviously we'd like to have had a few more points on the board. That makes it a bit more difficult than it was at the start.
"They're going to put us under a lot of pressure and there will be a hostile crowd. The players are used to it. Hopefully we can take the performances our teams have given in Europe this season and take that on to the international level."
This, of course, is exactly where the side have failed. Individuals durable enough to get Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United into the Champions League quarter-finals were all culpable as England lost in Croatia. "It's part of playing for England," Carragher says phlegmatically.
A sense of humour is also of assistance. He broke off from routine comments about how well Liverpool had prepared for the Barcelona fixtures to add: "We had a good training camp in Portugal." The mischievous reference was to the golf-club dispute between Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise on the Algarve. After that, there can be little in Tel Aviv that will come as a shock to Carragher.