Having painful joints, he tucked into drink with a spasm (9)
I believe the answer is:
rheumatic
'having painful joints' is the definition.
(suffering from rheumatism)
'he tucked into drink with a spasm' is the wordplay.
'tucked into' is an insertion indicator.
'drink with' becomes 'rum' (rum is a kind of drink. I am not sure about the 'with' bit.).
'spasm' becomes 'tic' (tic is a kind of spasm).
'he' inserted within 'rum' is 'rheum'.
'rheum'+'a'+'tic'='RHEUMATIC'
(Other definitions for rheumatic that I've seen before include "Suffering from pain in muscles or joints" , "Afflicted with pain in joints etc" , "inflamed by complaint" , "inflammatory complaint" , "Like much joint pain" .)