He played representative football for Leicester Schools,[1] alongside future Bolton team-mate and Scotland international Alex Donaldson.
[3] He spent something over two seasons with the club, as backup for Jimmy Seddon,[6] and played 10 first-team matches, all in the league,[7] before moving on to Norwich City of the Third Division South in July 1922 for a £750 fee.
Until then he had played as a centre half,[1] "[making] up for his lack of height by his cleverness"[8] – he stood 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) – but he was a regular for Norwich on the left of the half-back line.
Wright saw his future in management, but after failing to get the player-manager vacancy at Chatham Town, he attempted to continue his playing career with another Third Division club, Brighton & Hove Albion, in 1923–24.
[6] After four years with Dundalk, Wright went back to England to take up the post of trainer to Lincoln City[8] Lincoln finished in the top four of the Third Division North three times in the four seasons that Wright trained them, and according to the Lincolnshire Echo, he "proved a popular and efficient trainer, and tributes to the fit condition of the players have been paid on many of the grounds on which City have appeared.