What happens if your iPhone becomes damaged while preparing for AppleCare+ Repair?

I recently cracked my iPhone XS's back camera. Since it is under AppleCare+ until early October, I paid $99 for an Express Replacement which requires that I mail the broken phone to them. Unfortunately, when the replacement arrived, I had to switch the SIM card to the replacement, but the SIM card mechanism became damaged on the old phone while i was doing so. I do not believe I did anything wrong at all, it just wont let the tray back into the phone. Has anyone encountered a similar problem? Should I contact Apple about it in advance and risk losing the right to my $99 claim or should I mail it in anyway and hope for the best? I believe it is a design flaw in the SIM tray that such a thing can happen.