You can damage the roots while loosening the spoil if you’re poking and prodding too aggressively.  Hence, you’ll want to be gentle and careful to minimize causing any more harm.  Nevertheless, you won’t have to worry too much if you’ve accidentally hit your plant while loosening up the soil.  While a healthy plant will be able to regrow any damaged roots effortlessly, the same cannot be said for a plant that’s undergone a lot of stress and deficiencies in a soil-compacted environment.