Graham AH-SID This is really a bit of a hack job but it does what you want

{% set img_http=entry.content |split('"') %} {% if img_http[3] starts with 'http' or img_http[3] starts with '/' %} {% set short_desc=entry.content |split('</a>') %} <div class="description">{{short_desc[1]}}</div> <div class="box2"><img src="{{img_http[3]}}" alt="*" /></div> {%else%} <div class="description">{{ entry.content|raw }}</div> <div class="box2"><img src="/default.png" alt="*" /></div> {%endif%}

first it splits the description into an array at the quotes
Then it checks if the 4th element starts with http or /
if it does it splits the description into another array at </a>
and outputs the 2nd element of the description array
it then uses the 4th element of the 1st array as the source for the image tag
or else if there is no image it outputs the whole description and your default image

if it all goes wrong don't blame me