Column: 540 minutes of Carra

Five hundred and forty minutes. That's nine hours.

If you include your lunch hour that's the entirety of one working day for most of us. It might seem like an eternity on certain grey afternoons, but it really isn't.

Give or take a few minutes of injury time here or there, nine hours is all that remains of Jamie Carragher's playing career. It's gone by in a flash, hasn't it?

Rewind through 17 years' worth of blood, sweat and, okay, not tears - he is from Bootle after all - and you'll be inundated with images of blocks, tackles, headers, and extremely rare and therefore special goals, all to the soundtrack of Carragher's trademark screams of defensive organisation.

It was tempting to think that he'd be around forever, much in the same way that Manchester United fans must feel about Sir Alex Ferguson and Ryan Giggs. They belong in the Old Trafford dugout and in United's No. 11 shirt respectively. Seeing somebody else there would just be weird.

Yet Carragher had been fading from view for a season or two until the beginning of 2013. Somebody else was usually in his position. Personally, it was a sad sight to see Carragher on the bench or emerging for the final few moments of matches when he still had the quality to start and impress in those games.

One start in the first 22 matches of this Premier League season has now, ever since the 5-0 win over Norwich in January, been replaced by playing the full 90 minutes in nine of the last 10. We've all heard those offside screams. He was never going to go quietly.

And nor should he have been allowed to.

Carragher's selection over the past few months hasn't been based on sentiment. He has earned his place in the side thanks to the quality of his performances and calming influence on the side.

Whilst youth has been such a key ingredient of all that Brendan Rodgers has looked to achieve this season, that place for experience was always there. It is one - although by all means not the only - reason why Steven Gerrard has played every minute of every league game and why Carragher has been so important.

Now though, just those 540 minutes remain.

The matches against Reading, Chelsea, Newcastle, Everton, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers will all provide their own specific challenges, but they should all be enjoyed by supporters who can use them as a chance to say goodbye to one of their greatest stalwarts, the player who sits at No.2 on the club's all-time list of appearances behind the uncatchable Ian Callaghan.

As the 1960s and 70s legend would no doubt tell you, with the end of any season comes reflection either on the good times or the bad, but the end of this campaign should have fans looking a lot further back than just the last nine months.

It'll be the last 17 years that will be uppermost in the vast majority of minds, as memories of a player who never failed to give all it was possible for him to give will come flooding back.

Just 540 minutes remain, but it will perhaps be 30 minutes in Istanbul that Carragher is most remembered for; a time when even the merest hint of a white AC Milan shirt being allowed to get within the vicinity of Jerzy Dudek's goal seemed like a personal affront to him, regardless of how riddled with cramp his body was.

That was Carragher - it still is, and as the clock ticks down on his career it is the moments such as that one that will be remembered.

Five hundred and forty minutes might not seem a long time, but you can rest assured that Carragher will be remembered for a lot longer than that.

You can follow Mark on twitter @Mark_Jones86.