Kirkland was born in Barwell, Leicestershire, where he grew up with his parents, Marie and Eddie,[2] and attended Heathfield School and then Henley College Coventry.

[8] Manager Gordon Strachan began selecting him in Premier League matches ahead of Swedish international Magnus Hedman despite saying Kirkland was "big Bambi who couldn't kick the ball out of the penalty box".

[13] Kirkland made his debut for Liverpool in October 2001,[14] but mostly served as understudy to first-choice goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek during the 2001–02 season.

[15] During the 2002–03 season, costly errors by Dudek in a league fixture against Manchester United resulted in manager Gérard Houllier handing the first-team place to Kirkland in December.

[16] He played 14 consecutive matches, during which he kept six clean sheets, but sustained an ankle injury in January 2003, which ruled him out for the rest of the season,[17] meaning he missed the victorious 2003 League Cup final.

[20] Kirkland ousted Dudek as first-choice Liverpool keeper at the beginning of the 2004–05 season and played 14 matches before he was again sidelined in December after succumbing to a long-standing back injury.

[37] A back spasm suffered during training in early December nearly ended his stint at the club,[38] but he resumed his loan after making a speedy recovery.

[41] He was stretchered off after a collision with Johan Elmander in a 1–1 draw against Bolton Wanderers on 5 January 2011; Kirkland was in the Wigan squad due to Ali Al-Habsi's ineligibility to play against his parent club.

[42] Kirkland was going to join Cardiff City on an emergency loan in February 2011 as cover for goalkeeper Tom Heaton, but the deal fell through after he picked up a virus.

[43] On 12 October 2011, Kirkland joined Championship Doncaster Rovers on loan until January after attracting interest from new manager Dean Saunders.

[50] Kirkland remained as first-choice goalkeeper throughout most of the 2012–13 and 2013–14 campaigns, but was relegated to second-choice behind Keiren Westwood throughout the majority of the 2014–15 season and left Hillsborough in July 2015 after turning down manager Stuart Gray's offer of a new contract.

[57] Kirkland won eight caps with the England national under-21 team and was regularly selected for the senior squad from 2003 onwards,[7] but did not make an appearance until he came on as a substitute for the second half of a friendly against Greece in August 2006.

[57] Kirkland began coaching the goalkeepers at League One club Port Vale in January 2017 as a favour to his friend and former teammate Michael Brown.

[65] He and his wife Leeona had a daughter, Lucy, born on 14 November 2006, which caused him to miss an international friendly match against Netherlands the next day.

[66] In April 2008, Kirkland teamed up with fellow professionals Kevin Davies and Brett Emerton to help launch the Get Started programme.

He visited Hindley Youth Offenders' Institution in support of the scheme, which is delivered by The Prince's Trust in partnership with the Premier League, the PFA and the Football Foundation.