Hero who loses heart in litigation (4)

I believe the answer is:

lion

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'hero' is the definition.
(lion can mean a brave person)

'loses heart in litigation' is the wordplay.
'loses' becomes 'mislays' ('mislay' can be a synonym of 'lose').
'heart' indicates the central letters.
'in litigation' becomes 'ion' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The middle letter of 'mislays' is 'l'.
'l'+'ion'='LION'

'who' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lion that I've seen before include "Wild cat" , "Sought after celebrity (showing great strength and courage?)" , "British RU cap" , "bold type" , "Cat, the king of the beasts" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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