Norwich City's goalkeeper Declan Rudd, from Diss, joined the Academy at the age of 9. He was called up to the England Under-16 squad in August 2006 and then made his debut for the Norwich City Under-18s

In February 2006, he was offered a scholarship with the Canaries to commence in August 2007.

.Declan made his debut for the England Under-16s in December 2006 playing in a 2-1 win over Scotland that gave England the Victory Shield. Declan became the first Canary to play at the new Wembley when he played for England Under-16s against Spain on 28th April 2007. Declan came on for the second half and helped preserve a 1-0 win with a save in the very last seconds of the game - all in front of a crowd of more than 28,000. Commenting on the new national stadium, Declan said “It is really unbelievable. To play there for an England team - I just can't find the words to describe it properly. To be the first Norwich player to play there is such an honour and one that I will never forget. I used to watch Norwich every week when I was younger so I was very proud."

Declan was called up in September 2007 to play for the England Under-17s in a four team tournament where England came second, and where Declan played in a 6-1 win over Northern Ireland and a 3-0 win over Italy.

He was then called up to the England's Under-17 squad for their UEFA Qualifying Group in Estonia from 21st to 27th October. He will be contesting the number one jersey with Wesley Fotheringham who was in Korea for the U17 World Cup Finals in the summer. In addition to the hosts, England face Malta and Portugal in the group with two countries going through to the next stage.

Declan returned to the England Under-17 squad following his injury lay-off before Christmas 2007. He joined up with England for the Algarve tournament in Portugal next weekend which serves as a warm-up for the UEFA Championship qualifying matches in March. England faced Denmark, France and hosts Portugal between 2nd and 5th February 2008 in the Algarve

Called up to the bench for Norwich's trip to Sheffield Wednesday on 4th May 2008, Declan signed his first professional contract with the Canaries on 10th May 2008

During 2008/9, Decaln proved himself the hero as Norwich beat both Stoke City and Everton on penalties with Rudd saving shots to propell the young Canaries to victory in the FA Youth Cup.

Declan made his first team debut on 26th September 2009, coming on as substitute in the 1-1 draw at Gillingham following Fraser Forster's sending-off. He finished the season with 8 appearances as City won the League One title.

In July 2010, Declan played in goal as part of the England Under-19 team that reached the semi-finals of the European Under-19 championships in France, before losing 3-1 to Spain.

Declan made 3 appearances during Norwich's 2010-11 season in which promotion was won to the Premiership

In September 2011, Declan was called up to the England Under-21 squad. He also made his Premiership debut, coming on against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge after John Ruddy was sent-off. He played a total of 4 games in the Premiership during 2011/12 but missed a large part of the season through injury.

On 29th January 2013, Declan joined Preston on loan until the end of the 2012/13 season. He made his debut on 12th February 2013 in a 3-1 defeat at Yeovil. He also made his England Under-21 debut as a half-time substitute on 5th February 2013 in a 4-0 win over Sweden at Walsall's Bescot Stadium. He made a total of 14 appearances for Preston, keeping eight clean sheets. He has expressed openness to the suggestion of transferring to Deepdale permanently. North End boss Simon Grayson said “We are keen on bringing Declan back. He’s under contract at Norwich so we’ll see where we go with that one. We’ve offered Thorsten Stuckmann a new deal and Declan is something we’d like to do so that we have two very good goalkeepers. Agreeing a deal with Norwich is something much further down the line. Their season still has a few weeks to go and we have to respect that.”

In June 2013, he travelled to Israel as part of the England Under-21 team that flopped so miserably at the UEFA Under-21 European Championships. He signed a contract extension, to 2015, with Norwich on 18th June before rejoining Preston the same day on a season-long loan. Preston reached the play-offs but lost in the semi-finals to Rotherham.

Rudd became Norwich's second choice keeper in 2014/15 but only made two first team appearances. He made 14 appearaneces in 2015/16 including a run of 11 games in the Premier League following a loss of form by John Ruddy.

On 2nd August 2016, Declan was permitted to join Charlton on a season-long loan, and was replaced by Paul Jones at Carrow Road. Charlton were without a senior goalkeeper following the departures of Stephen Henderson, Nick Pope and Marko Dmitrovic this summer. His form for Charlton saw them linked in April 2017 with a permanent move for Rudd in the summer of 2017 whilst Preston were also reported to be keen. He made 40 appearances for Charlton. Norwich activated a one year extension to Rudd's contract in May 2017 following the announcement that John Ruddy would be leaving the club.

On 15th June 2017, it was reported that Norwich had agreed a £1million fee with Preston for Rudd, whose chance of being first-choice at Norwich was made less likely with the season long loan signing of Angus Gunn. he ended up signing for Preston on 20th June 2017 for an undisclosed fee with Rudd signing a three year contract. He signed a further three year contract in April 2020 despite speculation that West Ham were interested.

On 31st March 2022 it was announced that Rudd was retiring from playing, aged 31, having not fully recovered from a knee injury sustained in January 2021. He played four games at the beginning of 2021/22 but dipped out of contention in November 2021 before making the announcement in March 2022. Rudd made over 250 senior appearances during his career, the majority of which were for Preston. He said “The knee injury I sustained in January 2021 has unfortunately got to a point where it has forced me to finish playing the game we all love.  I would first of all like to thank all the players I have ever played with and all the managers and coaches that I have ever worked with!  I have been so lucky in my career to play with and against some of the best players in the world. Representing England at every youth level, playing for my boyhood club Norwich City in the best league in the world, being part of three promotions with them and living my dream of playing for them.  Thank you also to Charlton for the time I spent there and last of all Preston, who gave me the opportunity when I was 20 to go and play some games and gave me all I needed to make a step in the game, to then return years later and play there for five years making me feel at home from day one.

During the summer of 2022 he was observing training at Norwich's academy to gain knowledge whilst also pass on his own experiences to the club's golakeepers. In November 2022 he was appointed as Lead Academy Goalkeeping Coach. He had got his UEFA B coaching qualification whilst still playing.

Rudd is also an FA licensed coach and involved with the Future Foundation Elite coaching school along with Dan Goffin and Darren Plowman.