Hard to follow rite? I can’t unfortunately (9)
I believe the answer is:
intricate
'hard' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'to follow rite? i can't unfortunately' is the wordplay.
'to follow' means one lot of letters go next to another (some letters go after or follow others).
'unfortunately' indicates anagramming the letters (a bad or unfortunate spelling).
'rite'+'i'='ritei'
'ritei' next to 'cant' is 'riteicant'.
'riteicant' with letters rearranged gives 'INTRICATE'.
(Other definitions for intricate that I've seen before include "Fancy" , "Very complicated and involved" , "puzzlingly obscure" , "Complicated, detailed" , "Convoluted" .)