[3] Ablett joined hometown club Liverpool as an apprentice upon leaving St Margaret's Church of England High School in 1982.
He made his Liverpool debut on 20 December 1986 in a goalless league away draw with Charlton Athletic, when regular defenders Barry Venison and Mark Lawrenson were absent due to injury.
[4] He made five more appearances that season mainly at left-back, scoring what would be his only goal for the club on 18 April 1987 in a 3–0 home league victory over Nottingham Forest.
[5] Alongside experienced players in defence, such as Gary Gillespie, Steve Nicol and skipper Alan Hansen, Ablett helped Liverpool win the 1987–88 League championship and reach the 1988 FA Cup final.
Ablett flitted in and out of the squad over the next year, relegated in the pecking order following the arrival of Glenn Hysén and the progress of Steve Staunton and David Burrows.
Kenny Dalglish resigned as Liverpool manager on 22 February 1991, and his successor, Graeme Souness, decided to sell Ablett for £750,000 to Everton in January 1992, after 147 appearances for the Reds.
[citation needed] Ablett went on to make 128 league appearances and score five goals for Everton, and later went on to have a brief loan spell with Sheffield United before making a permanent move to Birmingham City for £390,000, joining them at the same time as established Premiership players Steve Bruce and Mike Newell, as new manager Trevor Francis set about building a side capable of challenging for a place in the Premier League.
[8][9] He was released by Francis in 1999, and after short spells with Wycombe Wanderers and Blackpool, where he played under former Anfield teammate Steve McMahon and scored once, against Luton Town,[10] he signed for American A-League side Long Island Rough Riders in June 2000.
In 2006, Ablett appeared as a substitute in Replay 86, a charity match staged in aid of The Marina Dalglish Appeal, which pitted the Liverpool and Everton sides that had contested the 1986 FA Cup Final against each other one more.
Ablett's inclusion was curious, because although on Liverpool's books at the time of the Final, he did not actually make his debut for the club until the December of that year.