A badly injured Morgan Tsvangirai appeared on television last month, and probably did his party his greatest service since leading it to within a whisker of overthrowing President Robert Mugabe almost seven years ago.
The images of Mr Tsvangirai's swollen face, bloodshot eyes and stitched-up head instantly propelled him towards martyrdom status, suggesting that the Movement for Democratic Change's crusade against the increasingly despotic Zanu-PF was finally approaching something of a tipping point. If anything has served to remind the world of the urgency of Zimbabwe's long-running crisis, it was these interviews from Mr Tsvangirai's hospital bed.
Mr Tsvangirai has been a big speck in the eye of Mr Mugabe since June 2000, when the MDC won 57 of the 120 seats in Zimbabwe's parliament, against 62 won by Zanu-PF. It was a spectacular result for the MDC, which had been in existence for less than a year and suddenly seemed capable of ending a government that had already shown itself unequal to the task of governing.
Formed in September 1999, the MDC grew out of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which had been in an alliance with Zanu-PF until it broke away under the leadership of Mr Tsvangirai.
Mr Tsvangirai was born in Gutu, central Masvingo province, in 1952. According to the MDC's website, after school 'he had his first taste of trade unionism' when working at a clothing factory in Mutare.
Two years later he joined the now-defunct Trojan Nickel Mine in Bindura, north of Harare, where he spent 10 years, rising from plant operator to general foreman.
