Afraid my confusion envelops new assistant (3,6)
I believe the answer is:
man friday
'assistant' is the definition.
(man Friday is a kind of assistant)
'afraid my confusion envelops new' is the wordplay.
'confusion' is an anagram indicator.
'envelops' is an insertion indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'afraid'+'my'='afraidmy'
'afraidmy' with letters rearranged gives 'mafriday'.
'mafriday' enclosing 'n' is 'MAN FRIDAY'.
(Other definitions for man friday that I've seen before include "Faithful servant" , "Servile attendant" , "Reliable assistant" , "Assistant to Robinson Crusoe" , "Male factotum" .)