Coach Steve McClaren is expected to choose between Paul Robinson and David James to play in goal, despite unimpressive starts to the season by the squad’s two most experienced keepers.

Carson, who turned 22 yesterday, helped England reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Under-21 Championship in the summer and has conceded fewer goals than both his rivals so far this term.

However, he said: “It should be good with England, but I think it will be mainly training for me.”

He added jokingly: “Ray Clemence (England’s goalkeeping coach) has got more chance of starting a game than me at the moment.

“I’ve just got to train hard and push Paul Robinson and David James as hard as possible.”

Carson kept his second clean sheets in three matches when Villa beat Chelsea 2-0 on Sunday and his performance drew praise from opposite number Petr Cech, who described him as “a great goalkeeper”.

“I had a couple of texts off people telling me about Cech’s comments,” Carson revealed.

“It’s good to get some praise off somebody like that because he’s the best in the world. If I can be anywhere near as good as him then I’ll be all right.”