The Italian's left with head cold perhaps (7)
I believe the answer is:
illness
'cold perhaps' is the definition.
(cold is a kind of illness)
'the italian's left with head' is the wordplay.
'the italian' becomes 'il' (the in Italian).
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'head' becomes 'ness' (ness is a headland**).
'il'+'l'+'ness'='ILLNESS'
(Other definitions for illness that I've seen before include "Ailment, disorder" , "suffering this" , "Period of sickness" , "Sick condition" , "Complaint" .)