IT says a lot about the impact of one player that a team will change the date of a fixture just to accommodate him.

Leeds Carnegie are nine games into what is increasingly becoming an instant return to the Guinness Premiership, but they risked upsetting the most powerful country in the world to make sure Mike MacDonald was available for today's Yorkshire derby with Doncaster Knights.

The 27-year-old captain leaves Leeds tomorrow – the date originally set for the visit of Lynn Howells' fifth-placed Doncaster – to hook up with his USA team-mates for a trio of autumn internationals.

After failing to persuade the game's governors in the United States to allow them to release the prop a day later for his hop across the pond, Leeds decided to bring the fixture forward 24 hours to ensure one of their key power players would be available for their toughest test since the trip to Exeter at the start of September.

"I want to be involved in as many Leeds games as possible, and Doncaster is a big match and we want to get another win in the bank," said MacDonald, who has started all but two games for the unbeaten National One leaders this season.

"Leeds did everything they could with USA to release me a day later but just couldn't do it."

Director of rugby Andy Key and head coach Neil Back have made a habit of shuffling their pack – the have made 10 changes from the side that thrashed Esher – as they seek to strengthen their squad physically and mentally for the anticipated return to English rugby's elite.

But to achieve that aim they acknowledge the importance of having MacDonald available.

Key said: "Our primary focus this year is getting back into the Premiership and the match against Doncaster is an important fixture for us."

MacDonald misses three games while representing the United States against Uruguay and then two Tests in Japan, before returning to Headingley Carnegie on November 28, a day before the trip to Newbury.

By that time, he will be eager to get back under the guiding hand of Key and Back, a duo he likened to schoolteachers in their meticulous approach to coaching. "We see errors in our game and a whole bunch of opportunities we have missed out on," said MacDonald.

"Backy and Key have done a great job of pointing it out to us.

"They don't tell us 'this is right, this is wrong'. They go about teaching us how to improve, it's almost like a classroom.

"Both of them have been there and done it, and it's good for us players having that wealth of knowledge in the room."

MacDonald is well placed to assess the progress of the club that he joined in similar circumstances three summers ago. "Two years ago (promotion season) we started with seven players, but this team has been together for a lot longer period and we've gelled a lot quicker. We know how to play together and we are learning how to play a different style of rugby."

Doncaster are without Tongan Toma Toke, who had a scan on a dead leg this week, but head coach Howells revealed Steve Boden will be missing for six weeks and not four months, after his shoulder tear was discovered to not be as serious as first thought.

The Knights bounced back from the disappointment of a home draw with Cornish Pirates to soundly thrash Sedgley Park last week, with a performance Howells described as the closest they have come to the expansive style he hopes to engender in his side. And with today's opponents overwhelming favourites not only to win the match, but the division, Howells believes his players can play with a lot more freedom.

"You send your team out to enjoy it," he said. "Our players have to come up against teams like this to show how far they have come and what we need to improve on. This is the only game of the season where there is no pressure on us."