Popular old man went to Centrelink, hurting (2,4)
I believe the answer is:
in pain
'hurting' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'popular old man went to centrelink' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'popular' could be 'in' ('in' can mean trendy) and 'in' is located in the answer.
'man' could be 'p' (abbreviation for pawn, a chess piece or 'man') and 'p' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ain' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for in pain that I've seen before include "Hurting" , "Suffering" .)