Crossword Genius

Headache - suffering a little further down? (4,2,3,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

pain in the neck

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'headache' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'suffering a little further down?' is the wordplay.
'suffering' becomes 'pain' (I've seen this before).
'a little further' becomes 'inthe' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'down?' becomes 'neck' (both can mean to finish a drink).
'pain'+'inthe'+'neck'='PAIN IN THE NECK'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for pain in the neck that I've seen before include "Annoyance (colloq.)" , "Troublesome person or thing" , "bind" , "Persistently difficult person or thing (caused by a whiplash?)" , "Really annoying person" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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