He started playing hockey, aged 8, for his local club Chester HC and played there for ten years before going to university, where he played for Sheffield Hallam.[4]
Roper made his international debut in 2013. He competed for England in the men's hockey tournament at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where he won a bronze medal.[5] On 24 May 2017 he was named as one of a three-man captaincy group, for England and Great Britain. It was a new captaincy structure for the men's international teams.[6] On 28 May 2021, he was selected in the England squad for the 2021 EuroHockey Championship.[7]
He was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics.[8] The team went out in the quarter-finals after losing a penalty shootout to India.[9]