Singer Cheryl Cole has reportedly returned to work after recovering from a severe bout of malaria.

The Girls Aloud star was so keen to record tracks for her second album that she defied doctors' orders to take it easy.

'Cheryl couldn't sit around any longer,' thesun.co.uk quoted a source close to her as saying.

'She feels 100 times better and wants to get some normality back. She was going crazy sitting around at home.

'She wants a change of scenery so has decided to go to Los Angeles and get back into the studio. But it's still nowhere near the work schedule she had before she fell ill,' the source added.