International footballer Lionel Messi not entirely removing tree (7)
I believe the answer is:
lioness
'international footballer lionel' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'messi not entirely removing tree' is the wordplay.
'messi' becomes 'Lionel' (footballer Lionel Messi).
'not entirely' means to remove the last letter (most but not all of the word).
'removing tree' becomes 'ss' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'lionel' with its final letter taken away is 'lione'.
'lione'+'ss'='LIONESS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lioness that I've seen before include "Beast" , "Queen of beasts?" , "Large cat" , "predatory female'" , "Female big cat" .)