In poor health, the Italian left (3)
I believe the answer is:
ill
'in poor health' is the definition.
(I've seen this in other clues)
'the italian left' is the wordplay.
'the italian' becomes 'il' (the in Italian).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'il'+'l'='ILL'
(Other definitions for ill that I've seen before include "Not well, sick" , "In a bad way" , "Misfortune" , "reduced state" , "US state" .)