English footballer of fifty with a total of two sons (7)
I believe the answer is:
lioness
'english footballer' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'fifty with a total of two sons' is the wordplay.
'fifty' becomes 'li' (I've seen this in other clues).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a' becomes 'one'.
'total of two sons' becomes 'ss' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'li'+'one'+'ss'='LIONESS'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lioness that I've seen before include "Female pride member" , "Female carnivore" , "Leo's mate" , "predatory female'" , "Predator" .)