Said to require massage (5)
I believe the answer is:
knead
'massage' is the definition.
(I know that massage can be written as knead)
'said to require' is the wordplay.
'said' shows a homophone (sound like).
'to require' becomes 'need' ('need' can be a synonym of 'require').
'need' sounds like 'KNEAD'.
(Other definitions for knead that I've seen before include "Work (dough) into mass" , "Work together" , "Work flour into dough manually" , "Work (dough/clay)" , "Massage - naked (anag)" .)