Tired footballers chasing game regretted conceding right at the start (8)
I believe the answer is:
fatigued
'tired' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'footballers chasing game regretted conceding right at the start' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'footballers' could be 'fa' (Football Association abbreviation) and 'fa' is found within the answer.
'game' could be 'tig' (playground game) and 'tig' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fatigued that I've seen before include "needing the rest" , "Exhausted" , "Drained of energy" , "Extremely tired" , "Tired, really weary" .)