A player going down the side of the field is inspiring (5)
I believe the answer is:
awing
'is inspiring' is the definition.
(to awe is to inspire with awe)
'a player going down the side of the field' is the wordplay.
'player going down the side of the field' becomes 'wing' (eg a wing in football).
'a'+'wing'='AWING'
(Other definitions for awing that I've seen before include "Inspiring reverence" , "Creating reverence" , "inspiring with dread" , "having dreadful effect" , "making an impression" .)