Crossword Genius

Prevent endless travel sickness (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

avert

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

'prevent' is the definition.
(I know that avert is a type of prevent)

'endless travel sickness' is the wordplay.
'endless' says to take the centre.
'travel' becomes 'haj' (haj is a kind of travel).
'sickness' becomes 'vert' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The middle of 'haj' is 'a'.
'a'+'vert'='AVERT'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for avert that I've seen before include "Turn away (ones eyes)" , "Ward off (bad event)" , "Turn away from, say gaze" , "Deflect away" , "Turn aside, perhaps gaze" .)

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