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Lacking direction, throw away possibility of becoming a star (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

asterisk

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

'a star' is the definition.
(I know that star can be written as asterisk)

'lacking direction throw away possibility of' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'direction' could be 's' (S is an example) and 's' is found in the answer.
'away' could be 'a' (abbreviation as used in sports fixtures) and 'a' is found in the answer.
'possibility' could be 'risk' and 'risk' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'te' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'becoming' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for asterisk that I've seen before include "Printer's star" , "Sign" , "Footnote marker" , "Star shaped symbol" , "star-shaped figure" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
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