Crossword Genius

Male teacher extremely likely to be very skilful (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

masterly

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

'very skilful' is the definition.
'masterly' can be an answer for 'skilful' (thesaurus). I'm unsure of the 'very' bit.

'male teacher extremely likely' is the wordplay.
'male teacher' becomes 'master' (I've seen this before. I am not sure about the 'male' bit.).
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters (only the extremes of the word are used).
'likely' with its centre removed is 'ly'.
'master'+'ly'='MASTERLY'

'to be' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for masterly that I've seen before include "Showing exceptional skill" , "Expert" , "Highly skilled" , "Virtuoso, consummate" , "World-class" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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