Crossword Genius

Race footballer around surgery (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

people

'race' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'footballer around surgery' is the wordplay.
'footballer' becomes 'pele' (I have seen 'Brazilian footballer ' mean 'pele' so perhaps 'footballer' could also mean 'pele').
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'surgery' becomes 'op' (short for operation).
'pele' placed around 'op' is 'PEOPLE'.

(Other definitions for people that I've seen before include "Population" , "See 6" , "Newspaper" , "Mortals" , "Men, women and children" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app