Skin feels bad around top of neck (6)

I believe the answer is:

flense

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'skin' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'feels bad around top of neck' is the wordplay.
'bad' indicates an anagram.
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'top of' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'neck' is 'n'.
'feels' is an anagram of 'flese'.
'flese' going around 'n' is 'FLENSE'.

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I've seen this clue in The Times.

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