Waste silk, following damage (5)
I believe the answer is:
floss
'waste silk' is the definition.
(silk of a silkworm's cocoon)
'following damage' is the wordplay.
'following' becomes 'f' (used when citing page numbers etc).
'damage' becomes 'loss' ().
'f'+'loss'='FLOSS'
(Other definitions for floss that I've seen before include "flower in Victorian novel" , "Kind of down" , "A mass of silky fibres - dental?" , "What dentist could recommend" , "advice of dentist?" .)