Winger in a last-minute switch (9)
I believe the answer is:
alternate
'switch' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'winger in a last-minute' is the wordplay.
'winger' becomes 'tern' (tern is a kind of bird).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a last minute' becomes 'alate' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tern' going within 'alate' is 'ALTERNATE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alternate that I've seen before include "Change repeatedly between two" , "Occur in turn repeatedly" , "Happening or following in turns, one after the other" , "Interchange" , "Act reciprocally" .)