Victim of offhand attempt to abandon centre (8)
I believe the answer is:
casualty
'victim' is the definition.
(I know that casualty is a type of victim)
'offhand attempt to abandon centre' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'offhand' could be 'casual' (synonyms) and 'casual' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for casualty that I've seen before include "As cut lay, it made one a victim" , "Injured party" , "Person injured in war or accident" , "Victim - injured person" , "Someone killed or hurt" .)