Fear old man stalled, mid-career? (5)
I believe the answer is:
dread
'fear' is the definition.
(dread is a kind of fear)
'old man stalled mid-career?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'man' could be 'read' and 'read' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'd' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dread that I've seen before include "Anticipate with horror" , "Enormous apprehension" , "Be very averse to" , "Get cold feet" , "Show horror" .)