The Pakistani cricketer turned aspiring prime minister fell 15 feet from a campaign platform during a rally Tuesday. He’s hospitalized with three fractured vertebrae, but his campaign may benefit from a sympathy vote, according to Jon Boone in the Guardian:

Mohammad Malick, a prominent journalist, said the images in the broadcast would more than compensate for the loss of time on the campaign trail. “This really resonates because people like the image of a fighter, of a warrior,” he said. “He took this terrible fall and he’s recovering quickly – that is a powerful image.”

Malick said it could also help boost voter turnout, which analysts believe will benefit Khan more than the frontrunner, Nawaz Sharif, the head of his faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).

A poll published by the political magazine Herald on Wednesday showed the [Khan’s] PTI and PML-N were virtually tied, with the latter leading by less than a percentage point among the 1,285 people surveyed.

For background on Khan, from the cricket field to Pakistan’s politics shaded by Islamism and military force, see his biographer Christopher Sandford’s recent TAC story, from shortly before Khan launched his election bid.