Bones of sailor shortened by injury at work? (5)
I believe the answer is:
tarsi
'bones' is the definition.
(bones of the foot)
'by injury at work?' is the wordplay.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'injury' becomes 'rsi' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'work?' indicates an anagram (I've seen 'works' mean this (work can mean to twist or convulse)).
'at' with letters rearranged gives 'ta'.
'rsi' put after 'ta' is 'TARSI'.
'of sailor shortened' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tarsi that I've seen before include "Bones of the ankles and heels" , "Foot bones" , "Parts of skeleton" , "parts of leg" , "collections of bones?" .)