Sort of canter left in the middle (7)
I believe the answer is:
central
'in the middle' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'sort of canter left' is the wordplay.
'sort of' is an anagram indicator.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'canter' with letters rearranged gives 'centra'.
'centra'+'l'='CENTRAL'
(Other definitions for central that I've seen before include "Every answer here has one such letter" , "Focal" , "Middle; crucial" , "Extremely important" , "Near the middle" .)