Crossword Genius

Knight leaves Scottish island for western US state (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

iowa

'us state' is the definition.
(state of the USA)

'knight leaves scottish island for western' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'island' could be 'iow' (abbreviation for Isle of Wight) and 'iow' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'a' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

(Other definitions for iowa that I've seen before include "American state, capital Des Moines" , "US swing electoral state" , "US state, three vowels" , "State of USA" , "Midwest US state" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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