The central defender was born in Houston, USA, but has spent most of his life in England, despite living in Singapore for five years while his father, Barry, coached the national team.
His career started at Liverpool, where he joined the club's Centre of Excellence at a young age before eventually making his way through the youth teams to the club's reserve side. Whitbread managed to break into Liverpool's first team on a few occasions but joined Millwall in search of regular first-team action after a successful loan spell at The New Den.
He went on to make almost 100 appearances for Millwall during his loan stint and permanent stay before Norwich City bought him in January 2010. Injuries dogged large parts of his stay at Carrow Road but Whitbread did play a part in helping them back to the Premier League, playing a number of games in the top-flight.
Norwich didn't renew his contract at the end of the 2011-12 campaign and City boss Nigel Pearson took advantage to snap him up on a free transfer, penning Whitbread do a two-year deal.