Join a female following team making a comeback (5)
I believe the answer is:
affix
'join' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a female following team making a comeback' is the wordplay.
'a female' becomes 'af' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'following' becomes 'f' (used when citing page numbers etc).
'team' becomes 'xi' (eleven, a football team).
'making a comeback' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'xi' in reverse letter order is 'ix'.
'af'+'f'+'ix'='AFFIX'
(Other definitions for affix that I've seen before include "Append" , "Fasten (to something)" , "Attach" , "Join" , "Glue" .)