Informed about article with book complete (2,3,4)
I believe the answer is:
on the ball
'informed' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'about article with book complete' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'about' could be 'on' (as in a book 'on' a certain topic) and 'on' is present in the answer.
'article' could be 'the' (the definite article) and 'the' is found within the answer.
'book' could be 'b' (abbreviation for book) and 'b' is present in the answer.
'complete' could be 'all' (similar in meaning) and 'all' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for on the ball that I've seen before include "Aware, alert" , "Ready to take initiative" , "Alert - informed" , "Savvy" , "Alert and focused as soccer player should be" .)