Misses providing massages reportedly (5)
I believe the answer is:
needs
'misses' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'massages reportedly' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'reportedly' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'neds' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'providing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for needs that I've seen before include "necessity once" , "Requires or lacks" , "Requires, is in want of" , "Calls for" , "Misses" .)