Suppresses ego — it's on the rise (7)

I believe the answer is:

stifles

'suppresses' is the definition.
(stifling is a kind of suppressing)

'ego it's on the rise' is the wordplay.
'ego' becomes 'self' (synonyms).
'on the rise' says the letters should be written in reverse (in a down clue, letters go up).
'self'+'its'='selfits'
'selfits' in reverse letter order is 'STIFLES'.

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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