Can Cable get Damaged?

I went to the rear of my set-up just to move some wires over and I noticed that the interconnects from my Rega p3 (standard wires) were extremely folded, curled, bent out of shape and tangled at the pre-amp end near the connectors. I must of been very sloppy when I first hooked up the table. Just wondering if ant damage could occur over this and any idea of how to test for it?

Thanks,
Blr