Statesman, as it happens, almost bitten by animal (7)
I believe the answer is:
bolivar
'statesman' is the definition.
(I know that Bolivar is a statesman)
'as it happens almost bitten by animal' is the wordplay.
'as it happens' becomes 'live' (as in live broadcasting).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'bitten by' means one lot of letters goes inside another (I've seen this in other clues).
'animal' becomes 'boar' (I've seen this before).
'live' with its final letter taken away is 'liv'.
'liv' placed within 'boar' is 'BOLIVAR'.
(Other definitions for bolivar that I've seen before include "Simon --, South American liberator" , "Founder of Bolivia" , "Leader of several independence movements by Spain's South American colonies, d. 1830" , "Basic unit of money in Venezuela" , "Revolutionary leader" .)