Figures the Egyptian leader is under a strain (5)
I believe the answer is:
tense
'under a strain' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'figures the egyptian leader' is the wordplay.
'figures' becomes 'tens' (ten is a number).
'leader' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'egyptian' is 'e'.
'tens'+'e'='TENSE'
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for tense that I've seen before include "perfect, perhaps" , "past possibly" , "In a nervous state" , "Maybe future" , "Subject to strain" .)