Cross without contest from attacking player (7)
I believe the answer is:
forward
'attacking player' is the definition.
(eg in football)
'cross without contest' is the wordplay.
'cross' becomes 'ford' (to ford a river is to cross it).
'without' is an insertion indicator ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'contest' becomes 'war' (I've seen this in other clues).
'ford' enclosing 'war' is 'FORWARD'.
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for forward that I've seen before include "Pushy - send (on)" , "Footballer; ahead in time" , "Attacker" , "Promote" , "26 [RUGBY] player" .)