Crossword Genius

Medico chooses to include nothing; you say they abandon the course (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

dropouts

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'they abandon the course' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.

'medico chooses to include nothing you' is the wordplay.
'medico' becomes 'Dr' (synonyms).
'chooses' becomes 'opts' (I've seen this before).
'to include' is an insertion indicator.
'nothing you' becomes 'ou' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'opts' going around 'ou' is 'opouts'.
'dr'+'opouts'='DROPOUTS'

'say' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dropouts that I've seen before include "Hippies" , "They cease to participate in society or study course" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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