Frightened to cross river bearing evidence of wounds (7)
I believe the answer is:
scarred
'bearing evidence of wounds' is the definition.
(having scars)
'frightened to cross river' is the wordplay.
'frightened' becomes 'scared' (scared means frightened or fearful).
'to cross' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters cross or go round others).
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'scared' placed around 'r' is 'SCARRED'.
(Other definitions for scarred that I've seen before include "Marked for life" , "Blemished" , "bearing evidence of injury" , "Marked (by wound)" , "Flawed" .)