Meal players left unfinished (3)
I believe the answer is:
tea
'meal' is the definition.
(tea is a kind of meal)
'players left unfinished' is the wordplay.
'players' becomes 'team' (I've seen this before).
'left unfinished' means to remove the last letter.
'team' with its final letter taken away is 'TEA'.
(Other definitions for tea that I've seen before include "A light meal - eat up" , "Shrub; drink" , "TREE" , "Dried leaf infusion" , "Infused leaves" .)